More Than A Friend (MTWYMT PART IV)
by Writing Desk's Raven
Summary: More Than What You May Think Series, Part IV: Mikayla is, or was, a demigod. Now she's immortal, tasked with serving her mother, Athena, for the rest of eternity. And she's okay with that. Or, she was okay with that. But when Zeus makes a new decree, and her mother gives her new orders, she can either lose the job that she has so much ... (Full Summ. Inside) (Parts I-III Complete!)
1. Summary

**More Than What You May Think**

**Part IV: More Than A Friend**

Mikayla is, or was, a demigod. Now she's immortal, tasked with serving her mother, Athena, for the rest of eternity. And she's okay with that. Or, she was okay with that. But when Zeus makes a new decree, and her mother gives her new orders, she can either lose the job that she has so much passion for, or she can lose her best friend, the one person she can trust over anyone or anything else. And what do you do when new powers come into play? What's a girl to do?

* * *

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	2. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I own no works credited to that name. Nor do I own any works credited to the name of Cassandra Clare, for I am not her, either. I'm simply me, and I only own works credited to my own name(s). {Currently Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name before that that I forget.}_

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**~Mikayla's POV~**

The gardens of Olympus were beautiful at this time of year. All the colors were just bursting with vibrancy, the reds and blues and yellows and purples so vivid they looked as though they'd come from some fever dream. I was glad my mother had given me the day off of serving her, it was nice and a walk in the park was just what I needed after a stressful week.

I was a minor goddess, serving my mother for eternity after she had offered me the position after I had retrieved her favorite helmet from a spider monster den two years ago. I'd actually been the only one even remotely willing to go, seeing as all the rest of my siblings were quite afraid of spiders. I wasn't afraid of them, just saw them like any other insect. That didn't include those spider monsters that had tried to kill me, though. They could all go burn.

The hardest part of that quest hadn't even been the den or retrieving the helmet. It had been all the driving. The den was way up in Minnesota, and I'd traveled up through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and up to the northernmost part of Minnesota. I'd actually gotten into a car crash in Ohio, in some small town. There had been a deer in the road, and I'd swerved to avoid it, but then my brakes stopped working. I crashed in the forest, after my car flipped. I'd apparently passed out, because I next woke in the hospital.

Doctors told me that my car had crashed, and that two young boys on their way home from the local middle and elementary school had pulled me out of the vehicle shortly before it exploded. They had gotten me to the road and flagged down a passing vehicle to call an ambulance. Apparently the boys never gave anyone their names, because the doctors didn't know anything about them other than where they'd been headed home from.

After the doctors let me go, I skipped town. I found a car dealership and paid for the cheapest car I could find, all in drachmae. The guy behind the counter's eyes had widened, but he took the bag and let me on my way. There had been zero hindrances after that.

When I'd returned home with my mother's helmet, she rewarded me with becoming a minor goddess and serving her for eternity, as well as allowing me one question. This was actually a common reward or gift from our mother, being allowed the answer of any one question, as we were children of Athena, and so were naturally quite curious and usually had many questions.

I asked her the only question I had.

_Who saved me from that car crash?_

She showed me the answer. Like a video screen, her shield played it.

I was surprised to find that the two boys, or at least one of them, were demigods. The one boy must've been very powerful to be so young and able to manipulate the car like that. The video ended when they left for home, and my mother informed me that their names were Hayden Blaire and Bailey Tucker.

I watched over the boys from time to time, to repay them for saving my life. If they hadn't investigated those swerve marks, or pulled me out of that car, I'd have died either when the car collapsed on me or when it exploded. And I did small things for them, when I could. Little things like getting Hayden's bully's father a promotion elsewhere so that they'd move, and sending a sudden influx of funding into the school's band program so that Bailey could continue to play percussion, rather than letting the program be shut down.

I was startled out of my thoughts when someone ran into me. They nearly knocked me over, but caught me at the last second. I looked up, a frown already on my face, to see a boy smiling sheepishly. "Sorry about that." He apologized.

"It's fine." I sighed, brushing myself off.

He stuck his hand out. "I'm Sage." He introduced himself.

I shook his hand. "I'm Mikayla." I greeted.

"Sage!" A voice called. I looked over to where a girl was approaching, three boys trailing behind her. "Oh, hello."

I gave a small wave. Sage smiled at the girl and the boys, before turning to me to introduce them. "These are my cousins." He explained. "Well, technically, I'm cousins with their parents, but whatever. That's Whit, that's Brady, that's-"

"Bailey Tucker and Hayden Blaire." I finished for him. "I know."

"You know who we are?" Hayden asked, brow furrowed. The rest of them looked equally confused.

"Of course I do." I told him. "I'm Mikayla Leanne. You saved my life."

Both of their jaws dropped. They must've heard my name in the news or something, because they both seemed to recognize me in the same moment.

"Weren't you that girl in the news that crashed her car?" Whit asked curiously.

"Yeah." I said, nodding.

"They didn't tell anyone their names." Brady said suspiciously.

"My mother allowed me one question when I retrieved her helmet, along with which she made me a minor goddess to serve her for eternity." I explained. "I asked her who the boys who saved my life were."

"So, uh, what exactly is going on?" Sage asked. He still looked a little lost, so I guessed no one had ever told him about what had happened.

"I was on a quest for my mother when my car crashed." I told him quietly. "Your cousins pulled me from the wreck, flagged down a driver to call an ambulance. Were it not for them, I'd have died."

"Why is this the first I'm hearing of this?" Sage asked, looking at his cousins.

"Remember when Jay called the farm, all frantic and worried, because he couldn't find them anywhere? When he thought maybe they somehow got themselves to the farm, but then they weren't there?" Whit asked Sage. His eyes lit up with recognition, and he nodded. "That was when."

"Well, it was nice meeting you all." I said, nodding my head at each of them. I turned to continue my walk through the gardens.

As I walked away, I could hear them all arguing, voices low, and though I couldn't make out what they were saying, it was mostly Whit arguing with Sage while Hayden, Brady, and Bailey occasionally interjected. I'd gotten about a hundred feet away before there were footsteps quickly approaching me. They slowed as they reached me, and then, "Mikayla."

I turned around to face Sage. "Yes?" I asked.

"Okay." He paused for a moment. "I don't really know anyone up here, and you're not too too much older than me, in terms of how long you've been up here, and you stopped around the same age as me. Would you want to hang out some time? It would be nice to have some friends."

"Today's my day off." I offered. He smiled wide.

"Does lunch sound good?" He asked.

"Sounds wonderful." I said. "Do you have anywhere specific in mind?"

"I know the perfedct place for a day like this." Sage said, holding out a hand. I took it. "Now, let's see if I can figure this out." He muttered to himself.

Then, Olympus disappeared around us.

* * *

It took him a couple tries, but he finally got us to the diner he was aiming for. I understood the struggle. I'd had problems, too, fiuring out the powers of a minor goddess when I became one. He must have had even more troubles, being so much more than a minor god. Everyone knew who he was, the new embodiment of Tartarus.

"We're here!" He called happily, looking up at the diner, a cute little place called Mary Jo Ellen's.

He held the door for me when we went in, and we were seated at a booth beside a window. I realized we'd never let go of each other's hands, and retracted my hand slowly. He just handed me a menu from the holder at the end of the table, not taking one for himself. I flipped through the pages slowly, ordering a lemonade when they asked for our drink orders.

A waitress was with us soon, and she smiled when she got to the table. "Sage, nice to see you round here again! We haven't seen you in ages. Don't think that you can just never visit now you're all high and mighty. And who's the pretty girl?" She asked. We both blushed, and she laughed.

"Lara, this is Mikayla, a friend." Sage introduced us. "Mikayla, this is Lara, she's a daughter of Demeter."

"Nice to meet you." I said.

"You too, sweetheart." She said. "Now, what can I get you guys for lunch?"

"I'll just have the usual." Sage said. Lara wrote something down and looked at me. I ordered a sandwich and fries.

"Alright, your orders will be out soon, you guys just missed the afternoon rush." She told us, before turning and heading for her next table.

"Usual?" I asked Sage curiously.

"Yeah, they know us here. Me and my cousins come here alot, when they come to the farm, which is basically twenty four seven." Sage said. He paused for a moment, thinking. "Now I think about it, I've been to Spruce Creek like three times in my entire life. They always come to the farm, rather than us go down there."

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**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	3. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

* * *

**Previously on More Than A Friend:**

I held open my arms. "Why don't you come give your dear sister a hug?" I asked.

"Go to hell." She spat. "You're no sister of mine."

* * *

"But of course I am! We share a father, don't we?" I asked, dropping my arms. "And besides, hell's not so nice a place. Though, I did spend lunch today with the new embodiment of hell. He's a sweet boy, and pretty cute."

"You'll never be a part of our family." Annika spat.

"Listen here, Annika." I said, voice gone serious. "I was the first member of the family, you were the last. Don't think you can take my family away from me. No matter how hard you and your mother try, our father will never abandon Erin and I. He loves us just as much as he loves you and your mother, probably more, and nothing's going to change that."

"How dare you!" She exclaimed.

"You think it's not true?" I asked her. "Well, you hadn't been born yet, obviously, when Erin's mother was still around. Erin may not remember her because he was so young when she died, but I do, even though I was really young. Some side effect of being Athena's child, I think for me at least, perfect memory. And I remember exactly how he always looked at her. I know for a fact he's never loved anyone so much as he did her. He didn't even love Athena close to that much. Do you want to know where you got your name, Annika?"

She'd gone pale, as if realizing what I was about to tell her. "No." She whispered. "He loves my mother. He does."

My voice softened at the next part. "He loves her, Annika, very much. But he loved Erin's mother so much that he named you after her. Your mother loved the name, and she agreed the moment he suggested it. She didn't used to hate me and Erin as much as she now does."

"Why are you here?" Annika demanded.

"I'm here to see my favorite brother from camp and his family. Is that such a crime?" I asked.

Annika glanced at Jacob. "My brother happens to be his father, Christian, Annika." I said exasperatedly. "You know, my favorite brother from camp actually went to camp when I did, even if he was years older than me."

"Whatever." Annika muttered. She went back into the kitchen, where they must have been before.

"What the hell was all that?" Jacob asked.

"Annika's my youngest half sister on the mortal side." I told him. "And I'd be careful, if you haven't told her yet. She hates the godly world."

"She hasn't been here very long. She arrived just before you did. She wanted to talk to me about something." Jacob said slowly, sadly. "I think she was going to break up with me. That's what everyone else thinks, too. Rumor has it she likes the quarterback of the rival team."

"She's sweet, if she enjoys being around someone. It just depends who she's with." I told him.

"Make sure you come say bye before you leave." Jacob told me. I promised I would, gave him a hug, then went upstairs to Christian and Isaac's room.

They'd apparently seen me out the window when I'd rung the bell, so they knew I was here. I hugged my brother and his husband, and then sat down on a chair. I talked and caught up with them, same as I did with my siblings at camp, though with more a joking and teasing presence. After I talked with them for an hour or two, I told them I had to be going.

I stopped by Jacob's room as I left, and found him sitting on his bed, clutching a picture frame to his chest. His eyes were red, like he'd been crying.

I went over and sat down beside him, slipping an arm around his shoulders. I just held him quietly for awhile.

He eventually spoke. "I knew she was going to end things, but I still was surprised when she did. I thought things were going so well."

"Not everything is meant to be. But you'll find your meant to be someday, you have to believe that, Jake. And when you do, you make the most of it for as long as you have it." I told him. How the roles were reversed. He was the son of Aphrodite, not me. Though I had spent more time in her presence than he ever had. I did bring him up to see his mother when I could, though. And she always asked about him, about how he was doing and how his life was going.

"I just thought I had. I was so happy, Kayla." He said softly. "Have you ever thought you found yours?"

"No, I haven't ever come close to it." I said. "But I don't think I will. It's different for me than it is for you, Jake. I'll be sixteen forever, serving my mother for eternity. I don't have the time or energy to find love."

He turned to face me. "No. Mikayla, you can't say that. Everyone deserves to find love. Don't let yourself think you never will, or it will keep you from finding it." He told me fiercely.

"There's the Jacob I know and love." I teased. "Giving out relationship advice and advocating for love."

"Promise me, Kayla. Promise you'll let yourself love and be loved." Jacob demanded.

"I swear it on the Styx, Jake." I said softly.

"Good." He hugged me, then pulled back. "Now, you have family to be visiting. And don't worry, Annika probably doesn't want to see you more than she has to, so she probably won't be at the house."

* * *

Of course it had to be Annika's mother who answered the door when I reached my old home. "Hello, Lindsey." I said chirpily.

"Mikayla." She said disgustedly. "How... Nice to see you." I had a feeling she wanted to say something far worse.

"Well, today is one of my days off, so, naturally, I decided to visit family. I've been both to camp and a few blocks away to visit the godly family, but I wanted to spend the rest of the day with the mortal." I told her.

"Your father and Erin aren't home." She told me, closing the door in my face.

I appeared behind her as she turned around, and she stiffened. "Both of their vehicles are right there in the driveway. I'm not a fool." I told her. I turned around and marched into the house.

I eventually found the both of them tossing a football back and forth in the backyard. My brother was seventeen, now, and on the football team at highschool. He and Jacob both were on the team. While Jacob was linebacker, Erin was quarterback.

"Kayla!" Erin exclaimed, forgetting about the football spinning towards him. It hit him in the chest, and he blinked at it, surprised. I burst out laughing.

"How have you been, sweetheart?" My father asked, coming over to give me a hug. Erin did the same.

"I've been good." I said. "But I've missed you guys."

"We've missed you, too." Erin told me. "Don't be a stranger. Even if you can't visit, call us, text us."

I laughed. "I'll do my best not to be a stranger." I promised.

We moved over to the patio chairs to sit. We ended up in a mini triangle.

"So, what's new with you?" My father asked.

"Well, nothing much. Though I did meet the two boys who saved my life." I said.

"What?" Erin asked.

"I crashed my car when I went on that quest for mom. They saved me." I explained. "They're demigods. Well, they're actually legacies. But they and some of their cousins were visiting Olympus, visiting another cousin. He's the new embodiment of Tartarus."

"That's... Interesting." My father didn't really know what to make of the whole thing.

I laughed. "I went to lunch with the boy, Sage. He's my age. He's nice. Then I went to camp, and then I went to Christian's." I told them.

"Christian Smith? The only Christian in town?" Erin asked. "As in, one of Jacob Smith's dads?"

"Yeah." I said.

"Annika's dating Jacob." Erin said, thinking out loud. Then he looked to me. "Why'd you go over there?"

"Annika's not dating Jake anymore." I said, shaking my head. "And I've half a mind to slap her for hurting him like that." My father gave me a stern look. But Erin spoke before he could reprimand me.

"Jake?" Erin asked. "He only lets close friends call him that. I'm one of the few people who can. How exactly do you know them?"

I smiled. "Christian is my half brother on the godly side. He's always been years older than me, but he always was my favorite person at camp." I explained.

"One of Jacob's dad's is a demigod? Does he know about all that? Does he know about you?" Erin asked.

"Oh, yeah, of course he knows. Christian's a son of Athena, yeah, but Isaac's a son of Hermes. And Jacob's a son of Aphrodite. He's met her a few times, and she's always asking me about him." I said.

"So what did you mean by Annika hurting him?" Erin asked.

"She broke up with him. I don't know what exactly was said, but when I came back downstairs after talking to Christian and Isaac for a couple hours, he was crying, clutching a photo to his chest. He told me he knew she'd come to break up with him, that she'd arrived just before I did, but that he was still surprised. He'd been really happy with her." I said softly.

Erin muttered a curse under his breath, and our father gave him a look. "Why don't we talk about something else?" He asked.

"Why don't you guys tell me what's new with you?" I suggested.

* * *

The next six years passed exceptionally normally. I visited all my family members on holidays and when I could. I made sure I was front and center in the audience for both Erin's and Jake's graduations. I also spent most of my days working with Sage, happy to have a friend that could accompany me while I worked. We became close friends, probably because we were kind of each other's only friends on Olympus.

* * *

"C'mon, Mikayla it can't be that horrible!" Aliya teased, trying to get me to exit the fitting room.

"Are you kidding?" I asked. "I look like... Not good in this." I still stepped out of the fitting room in the short and tight dress. She studied me for a moment.

"You're right, the color's not for you. But the dress itself is fine. Stay here and hold still." She turned and ran off.

When she finally returned, she shoved another dress into my arms and pushed me back into the fitting room. I suppose that's what I got for going shopping with one of Aphrodite's handmaidens. Aliya was a sweet girl and all, but she went crazy when she shopped.

When I came out again, Aliya decided it was the one and had me change so she could pay for it, tossing all the other things she'd decided I'd be wearing into the basket. We'd gone to a mall in the city, after I somewhat foolishly asked her to help me pick an outfit for Friday's party. Athena had given me the weekend off, and I was determined to have some fun time. I always visited family when I had time off, basically. So when Sage invited me to go hang out with him and his cousins and some friends, I readily agreed.

Aliya and I were sort of friends, that's why I'd asked her, but going today made me remember why I never went shopping with girls.

* * *

When it finally came time for the party, which was really more a gathering than a party, Aliya decided to get me ready. It took her four hours to do my hair alone, curling it and straightening it and figuring out how it would look best.

When everything was finally ready, she let me look in the mirror. My hair was all up in a braid that wrapped around my head like a crown, and my makeup was just some clear lip gloss.

My dress was strapless, and was a dark, mossy green color that slid through my hands like water, the silk cool to the touch. The top half clung to my body, accentuating the smallish curves I had, but turned more flowy at the bottom, reaching down to my knees. She also handed me four inch tall leather boots that reached my calves. I almost broke my neck just trying to at first stand up.

Done with getting ready, Aliya shoved me out into the hall, telling me Sage was ready to go and waiting at the bottom of the stairs. I had invited Sage to move in with me, in my big, empty house on Olympus, because he hadn't really been inclined to live in a palace in the pits of hell.

Sage was indeed waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. When I was halfway down, the stair creaked, and he glanced up. His jaw dropped, but he quickly closed his mouth and cleared his throat. "You look really pretty, Mick." He told me. I blushed a little.

"Thanks. You don't clean up too bad, yourself." I told him. He was wearing a pair of dark wash jeans, a light blue button down shirt, and black sneakers.

"So, you ready to go? Have everything you didn't put in your bag?" Sage asked.

"Yeah. I don't need anything else." I confirmed. We would actually be staying overnight at his family's farm, sleeping in one of their many campers. Tomorrow was a family day for them, excluding the parents, who were all having a separate family day in Spruce Creek; but everyone had readily agreed to my coming, saying I was already practically family with Sage. Six years made you close to a person.

Sage flashed us there, making no accidental stops or trips elsewhere, which had used to happen often when he tried to use the power, before I'd helped him to learn to master it.

I think that we were probably the last to arrive of everyone. All of Sage's cousins were there, as well as his older sister, and so were some others.

Sage brought me over to everyone, sitting around a big bonfire, and introductions were made. He pointed out his sister, Orianne; his cousins, Mason, Whit who was a girl today, Bailey, Hayden, and Brady; Whit's husband, Dustin David Herondale; and a couple of people who were basically or technically family, but who would be leaving tomorrow morning, Andrea, Flint, Lizzy, Aeric, and Anita.

After those introductions were made, we took seats. They were short a couple chairs, as evidenced by there being only one seat left, even with Whit sitting in her husband's lap, so I just sat myself down in Sage's lap. He didn't care. He just slipped an arm around my waist, pulled me closer to him, and asked me to hand him one of the two bottles that Whit had tossed to me.

We all talked and we laughed and we drank and played games for however long. Somehow, at some point, Sage and I ended up in the camper we were staying in, because that's where I woke up, curled into Sage's chest on the tiny bed.

That actually happened often - me waking curled into Sage's chest. I'd wake up in the middle of the night to a nightmare, or I wouldn't be able to fall asleep in the first place, and Sage would give me his shirt and hold me until I did fall asleep. Something about his clothing made me feel safe and comfortable. Things went the same when I used to live with my mortal family, I would go to my brother or my father and they would hold me.

I woke to an odd sensation, one I soon realized to be Sage stroking my hair with one hand, the other hand tracing circle on my back under the shirt. I opened my eyes to see him watching me, a concerned look in his eyes. "Did you sleep okay?" He asked softly.

"Yeah." I replied. "Thank you. For every time."

"It's no problem. You ever need anything, and I'll be there. Doesn't matter what it is." He told me.

I thanked him again, then asked what time it was. He glanced past me at the alarm clock on the little nightstand. "It's around eleven in the morning, but the family day's been called off until tomorrow. Everyone's too hungover to want to do anything." He told me. "So you can get a little more sleep."

"That sounds nice." I murmured. I was already nodding off again. Sage's answering chuckle was low and soft, and his breath tickled my face. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to my forehead before settling back to sleep again.

* * *

**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	4. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

* * *

**~Time Skip: 6 Months~**

I was not expecting to be summoned randomly by my mother. I was even more surprised to find the full council in the throne room when I arrived. To my relief, though, there was almost every other minor god and goddess assembled, all the once mortals or demigods raised to the status of minor god by one god or another in the past two centuries. There were, of course, mortals or demigods made minor god by those who weren't Olympians, but also weren't born with mortality, but they were much fewer than us, because it usually ended up that the minor god would ask an Olympian to make someone a god, or wouldn't bother.

After making us all stand by our patron god, alert and unmoving for a long while, Zeus finally spoke. "You may all be wondering why you've been summoned here." He started.

None of us spoke. You didn't speak when it wasn't necessary, around Zeus. I'd seen him fry a minor god before, and though he'd healed, it was not a pretty sight.

"Olympus is becoming a bit crowded, and expansions are a long time in the making. Athena's already gone over all the plans and such." He waved a hand toward my mother, who just shot him an irritated look. "As such, we're cutting back on population size. Any of you who want to become mortal once again, you may. You'll be just as you are now, just as you were when you entered godhood, if you were healthy, good as new if you were unhealthy. You'll have the status of demigod, with all the attached strengths and powers of a child of your patron. You'll receive a blessing that will erase your scent, so as not to allow monsters to find you, and you'll receive enough money to kickstart a life wherever you choose. If you wish to take this opportunity, please step forward."

I remained by my mother's side, her main assistant, with a some siblings, and former philosophers, activists, chemists, and even a few NASA scientists, among others. But many stepped forward. Life up here wasn't as glamorous as it seemed when it was offered, and I knew that many of them who stepped forwards had only accepted to save their lives.

Once everyone had been sorted through and sent elsewhere to be sent on their way back to mortality, there were still too many of us left to count.

"Now, as for the rest of you, the option remains a choice from now until the end of your very essence, I swear it on the Styx. The moment you decide it, you shall return to mortality just as those who have already accepted the offer have." Zeus announced. The rest of the council swore the same. "But, should you not fulfill your duties or disobey your orders from your patrons, whatever your specific jobs may be, you'll be relieved of your duties and returned your mortality, the same as all the others who chose it, of course."

A nervous muttering could be heard throughout the room. Many got by doing the bare minimum they had to.

"That is all. Meeting dismissed." Zeus announced. He stood, and flashed away. His own followers, as some like to call us, flashed away. Everyone else began doing the same as their patrons dismissed them.

My mother dismissed everyone but me. When we were the only two left in the chamber, she spoke. "How have things been going, Mikayla?" She asked.

"The Olive Project is going nicely, the grove is growing at a good rate. The trees will soon be producing olives enough to provide food and oil for that entire town." I started. She'd had me construct a project to help out a small town in Greece get back on their feet after a storm had taken out half the town's food source and power.

"That's not what I meant, Mikayla." She admonished. "How are things going for you?"

"For me?" I asked. She nodded. "Well, good, I guess. Why do you ask?" She never asked me how I was doing.

"I don't want you hanging out with that Tartarus boy anymore." She stated simply.

"What?" I asked.

"I don't want you around him. He's dangerous, and a bad influence, and I don't want my daughter around someone like him." She told me.

"But mother, he's literally my best friend!" I protested.

"That is an order, Mikayla." She said.

"Mother, he's my roommate, for crying out loud!" I argued. "And I won't just kick him out! Nor will I leave my home of the past years I've been up here!"

"I won't ask you to, you're much too polite and sentimental to do either. But I don't want you interacting with him extendedly. A hello in passing is fine, but other than that, you will not seek him out or spend time with him. You have three strikes, Mikayla, or you'll be returned your mortality." She ordered, fixing me with a steely gaze. I didn't bother waiting to be dismissed before I flashed away.

I think Sage was confused when I didn't go to his room in the middle of the night. It had become so commonplace that he was concerned for me when I didn't go to him. So he instead came to my room.

I was sitting with my knees pulled up to my chest when the door opened. Sage saw me sitting like that and came over and sat beside me. He slipped an arm around me and began to rub my back soothingly. "Hey, is everything alright? You didn't come to my room." He asked. I briefly thought back to my mother's orders, but technically, I didn't seek him out. He sought me out.

I didn't answer his question. I just set my forehead against my knees. A couple tears traced their way down my face. "Talk to me, Mick. What was it this time?" He asked.

"These- these ugly demonic creatures. They were tearing my family apart." I whispered.

"It's not real, babydoll. Nightmares are just that, nightmares." He told me softly, rubbing my back.

"It seemed real." I whispered. "It felt real, sounded real."

"You're okay now, Mick." He reassured me. "Babydoll, you're safe." He slipped off his t-shirt and helped me slip it on. I usually only wore undergarments to bed anyways, so it wasn't like I had a shirt already on. When I went to his room at night, I'd just throw on my silk robe as I left my own room.

"Lay down, Mick. Get some sleep. Gods only know how long you've been awake." He said, and laid back against the pillows. I laid down beside him, my head on his chest, laying on my stomach. He put one arm around me, and the other rubbed circles on my back. I fell asleep listening to his heartbeat and his voice whispering soothingly.

* * *

Sage woke up before me. Even after being a god for years, he still woke up when he always had, living on the farm. When I woke up, he was just quietly watching me.

"Hey, Mick. How'd you sleep?" He asked.

"Better." I responded with a yawn. "Thank you."

"If you had a nightmare, why didn't you come to me?" He asked, voice laced with concern. I looked away. "Mick. Talk to me, please."

"She's going to be mad at me." I whispered.

"Who's going to be mad?" Sage asked.

"Athena. She made it very clear she doesn't want me around you anymore. I'm not allowed to seek you out and spend time with you, only allowed a hello in passing. She didn't make me kick you out, I would've flat out refused, I'm way too nice to do that, and she knows I'm much too sentimental to move out, myself." I explained.

"So break a few rules, rebel a little. It can't hurt anything." Sage suggested.

"I can't. That would've been strike one. She said I only get three. Zeus made a new decree about how if we don't follow the orders of our patrons, we'll be returned our mortality and kicked out of Olympus." I said.

"I heard about that. Many chose to leave, and many are going to get sent back because they don't ever follow the rules, anyways." Sage said. He didn't say anything else, seemingly at a loss for words.

"Just... Stay with me for a little while. Make strike one last as long as possible. I don't want to have to let you go, not just yet." I pleaded.

"Of course. I wouldn't do anything else. You're not getting rid of me that easily." He told me.

"Thank you." I whispered, curling into his side. He wrapped an arm around me.

"It's my pleasure." He responded.

I got a stern lecture from Athena about how I knew exactly what she meant when she gave me orders to not hang around with Sage, and I got notified that that was my first strike. Two more and I'd be again mortal.

I didn't bother to argue. My mother could be quite stubborn when she wanted to be, and I knew she wouldn't be changing her mind anytime soon.

* * *

The next three months were terrible. Without Sage to help me after my nightmares, and to assure me they weren't real, they got worse. I got little sleep, and I tore at my own skin when I did sleep. A wave of my hand would fix the bodily damage, but it didn't change the fact that it happened in the first place.

Sage saw me getting worse, but didn't attempt to spend too long with me. He knew how much my job meant to me. Yeah, I was usually referred to as Athena's assistant, but my job mainly centered on helping people and creating things that would fix large issues and help many.

So he didn't try to help me. But I constantly wished I could just go to him again, and not have to worry about the nightmares. Didn't Athena see what the nightmares were doing to me, and how much Sage helped?

* * *

I'm not too entirely sure how the second strike happened. It just kinda did.

All I know is that I was in the living room, reading a book. Sage came in and sat on the couch, too, turning on the the tv. This wouldn't count as a strike, we weren't hanging out or anything, we just happened to be in the same room.

He was watching the Hallmark channel, I remember, and I remember that at one commercial, he turned to face me, and took my book and set it on an end table.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, all too aware that it could turn into a strike at any moment.

"I hate this not being able to spend time with you. I miss my best friend. And... To be completely honest with you, I hate not being around you because..." He trailed off. But he leaned forward and kissed me, pressing his lips to mine lightly, for a very long moment, before leaning back again.

"What was that?" I asked. "Sage, my orders..."

"I couldn't let go of you. Not without doing that at least once." He whispered. He held one of my hands in his. "I'm sorry. I promise I'll make sure you don't get a third strike." He dropped my hand and left the room without so much a glance back at me.

Of course, Athena didn't actually know what had happened, just that I'd spent enough time with him to be violating her orders. Part of the whole magic that would return my mortality if I didn't follow her orders. I got another stern lecture from her, and a warning that one more time would take away my job and my life on Olympus.

Sage held true to his promise. He made sure I didn't get a third strike. He wasn't at the house when I returned, nor was his stuff, and he wasn't there for the next week. Month. Six months.

I knew he was most likely at the farm, but if I went to him, it'd be my third strike. The only way I could see him was in a normal passing, and he'd removed himself from the equation so that no normal passing could turn into a third strike for me.

It tore me apart, inside, but I couldn't do anything about it. I just had to sit and smile through it, do my job. No one else ever noticed a thing.

* * *

"Stand up straight, Mikayla." Athena told me, quiet enough only I could hear. It was the fourth time she'd said it to me during this meeting. The full council was here, and I had to attend because it I'd finished my latest project and the proposal for my next needed to be approved by the full council.

The proposal needed to be approved by the full council because it didn't just have to do with mortals, but with demigods and legacies. It was an idea for a safe place somewhere in the middle of the country, because America was quite large and it could be hard to get to either one coast or the other.

The new camp would be modeled after both camps. It would have different home compounds organized by god, with utilities and smaller apartments for residents. There would, of course, be buildings like an amphitheatre, mess hall, and stadium. And there would be activities included from both camps - Capture the Flag, war games, training, etcetera, etcetera. There were also plans for a city, for older demigods to live out their lives.

"And next, we are to hear a proposal from Athena's daughter, for a project in...?" Zeus asked.

"Kansas." Athena announced, giving me a nudge forward. She spoke again, so only I could hear. "Stand up straight and make sure you speak loudly enough."

When I was done, I went back over to stand by Athena. "What was that?" She hissed, very obviously unpleased with me.

She'd apparently spoken a bit loudly, because Demeter spoke up. "The child is just having an off day. We all have them. While the proposal might not have been presented in the very best way, we've all come to know how Mikayla's projects turn out. I, for one, am interested in seeing this one through. All those for a camp in the middle of the country, set up as the proposal dictates?"

All the others of the council said aye. Not a single one disagreed. I think that they realized how good of a thing this could be for their own children and descendants.

But Athena ignored them. She just spoke to me again. "You knew you were to give your proposal today, yet you came unprepared." Her voice held a very annoyed tone, bordering on anger or frustration.

"I was prepared. I just didn't sleep." I retorted.

"And why didn't you? Have you decided to no longer take your duties seriously? Do you wish to quit?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

I snapped. "You know what? Maybe I do want to quit! I may be immortal now, but your orders are slowly killing me! Can't you see what it's doing to me? Don't you ever notice anything?"

A cold, grey fire burned in her eyes. Not figuratively, but literally. I definitely pushed her over that line into anger. "You do not get to blame me for something that I did to protect you. You do not get to place me at fault for something that, in the long run, is only going to keep you safe." Her voice was steely calm, but that anger simmered just underneath.

"I quit." I told her. "I'm done caring about losing my job if I don't follow the one order that will kill me. I'm done with the sleepless nights and bloody hands and arms because I try to tear open my own skin in the little sleep I do get. I'm done with following orders only given because you simply dislike someone."

That pushed her across some line that I don't think anyone can return from, no matter how hard they try. Not even a god, no matter how much they regret something once the anger's gone. Because, even in her anger, she knew that quitting would make me mortal again. Yet, she still decided to kill me.

It didn't work.

* * *

**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	5. Chapter 4

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

* * *

**Previously on More Than A Friend:**

Yet, she still decided to kill me.

It didn't work.

* * *

The week before, I'd requested a three day break when I was done with my project, to give my mind a rest before starting my next. She granted it, telling me I'd just about earned it with all the hard work I was doing. She was just grateful I hadn't had any contact with Sage in so long.

I finished out my day of work, working late to make sure I had absolutely finished my project and wouldn't have to come in another day. I was so close to done, it wasn't worth an entire extra work day for a couple hour's work. Not that the project wasn't worth it, it was a good thing, a soup kitchen for the poor, stationed in New York, but it was worth the overtime work to finish it up that day.

The first day of my break, I went home. Lindsey answered the door when I rang the bell.

"Mikayla. As you can clearly see by the lack of every vehicle this family owns in the driveway, I'm the only one here." She greeted.

"I know." I said. I took a deep breath. "I need your blessing to go do something extremely stupid and dangerous."

"What?" She asked.

A tear slipped down my cheek. "She'll kill me, the moment I speak out. And I don't know how much longer I can contain my emotions." I whispered.

"Come in, Mikayla, and tell me what's going on." Lindsey stepped outside and slipped an arm around my shoulders, then led me into the house. She brought me to the kitchen and had me sit at the island while she went about preparing two mugs of tea.

"You actually want to know? You're not just going to kick me out or anything?" I asked incredulously.

"You might not have noticed, Mikayla, but I am only on the colder side when my daughter is home, or supposedly going to be soon. Any other time, you just ignore me and find your father or brother." Lindsey told me.

I thought back to all the times I'd visited ever since I started working for my mother. She wasn't lying. "Why?" I asked. My voice came out kind of hoarse.

She sighed, setting a mug in front of me and taking a seat across from me with her own mug. "I care about you, Mikayla, I really do. But I also don't wish to alienate the only child I've given birth to. I consider all three of you my children, even if I am not your biological mother or Erin's biological mother." She explained.

"Why does Annika hate me so much?" I asked.

"I won't pretend to know, because I honestly don't." Lindsey sighed. "I wish she didn't, but she does, and nothing I say seems to help. If anything, she just gets angry whenever I say anything."

"It doesn't make any sense." I said.

"It really doesn't." Lindsey agreed. "Now, why don't you tell me about why you're here."

"There are new orders, for all of us minor gods that were made gods to work for others. Overpopulation and such." I started hesitantly. "If I don't follow my mother's orders, I'll be returned my mortality. And I really care about my job. I also have the choice to quit. But her newest orders..." A tear slipped down my cheek.

"What did she order you to do?" Lindsey asked, nothing but concern on her face.

"I'm not allowed to be around Sage anymore. She doesn't like him, that's why she gave the order. She says he's a bad influence, and he's dangerous, but he's the sweetest boy you'll ever meet. She knows he's my best friend, she's known he's been my one of my only friends for the past six years. But still, with my job on the line and her knowing how much I care about my job, I'm not allowed to be around him anymore." I explained. "She gave me three strikes. The first, he came to me, technically, but it still counted. The second happened... And he promised he'd make sure I didn't get the third. He left. He up and left, took everything of his from our house, and I haven't seen him in six months. It's killing me. I may be immortal, but I am dying a slow death."

"How did the strikes happen?" Lindsey asked. "You just decided to hang out with him twice because you could?"

"You remember my nightmares, right?" I asked.

"I do. You always used to come into our room as a little girl, and you'd lay down right between us and sleep. You stopped coming in when you were ten. We thought they'd stopped." Lindsey said. Surprise and concern lined her features.

"They didn't stop, but I started going to Erin." I told her. "He made me feel safe just like you and Dad did. He made me feel safe like... He made me feel safe like Sage did."

"The nightmares didn't ever go away?" Lindsey asked.

"No. I never got used to them for the few years I was by myself when I first started my job. Instead, I just took the godly form of an energy drink, and only slept when absolutely necessary. It got me by." I admitted. "And then Sage and I became friends, and then I offered him the extra room so he had a place on Olympus instead of a creepy palace in the pits of hell, and so he had a place outside his family's farm if he wanted it. He took it."

"He heard me screaming the first night. It was a particularly bad night. He came to my room, and he asked what was wrong, and he comforted me. And then he held me until I fell asleep, and stayed with me all night. And he did that for awhile after, until I started to go to his room when I woke up. He didn't mind, and it became routine." I continued. "And then after six years, when Zeus makes this new decree, Athena makes that order, knowing I won't go against it, knowing I won't risk my job..."

"But you did go against it, twice?" Lindsey was confused, I could tell.

"I mean, technically... But I knew that there were three strikes, and that only with three would I be risking it. The first strike, it was the night she gave the order. Sage came to my room when I didn't go to his. He was concerned. I had to tell him about the orders, but since it would only be one strike, he stayed with me all night. She didn't make me kick him out or love out myself because she knew I would've flat out refused." I explained. "The second happened after three months of only being able to say hi if I passed by him in the house. I was reading, and he came into the living room to watch TV. That alone wouldn't have counted, the living room wasn't just mine. But then he took my book and set it aside, and he kissed me. He told me he couldn't let me go without doing that at least once. Then he promised I wouldn't get a third strike and left. I haven't seen him in sixth months. He's probably at his family's farm."

"And you need my blessing for what, exactly?" Lindsey asked softly.

"I'm going to do something stupid, soon, I know it. I can't keep my mouth shut much longer, and every single day, I want to yell and scream at her for what's happening to me. And if I do that, I'll likely quit or she'll fire me, but she's a god and she's never known any other way. She'll be angry, and she'll likely do something rash. I don't want to get hurt." I quietly explained. "You're much more of a mother to me than she ever was."

I took a deep breath. "Lindsey, I need a mother's blessing to go to the River Styx and get the curse of Achilles. I need your blessing to become invincible."

* * *

The second day of my break, I went to the River Styx.

When I went under, I thought of everything that I had to live for. Everything that mattered to me. My family, my few friends, my job of helping people. My mind kept going back to Sage. Back to Sage and his goofy smile, back to Sage and his laugh, back to Sage and his comforting embrace.

And so my Achilles spot became the spot that Sage touched the most - my left palm. It didn't matter what we were doing, we were usually touching in some way, and most times, we were holding hands.

So my Achilles spot became the center of my left palm and I walked out of that river, without a shadow of the doubt that the River tried to instill in any who touched it in my mind.

* * *

The third day of my break, I went to Aliya. I told her what was likely to happen soon, and what I had done, and she agreed to help me. She agreed to help me even if it might cost her her own place on Olympus. I never realized how good a friend she was to me until she said that. I guess I'd taken her friendship for granted.

Aliya helped me to stock a safehouse with things I would need when the time came. I would most definitely have to hide out for at least a little while. The safehouse was in a forest on a mountain, in a place that you could only find if you were told exactly where it was and had permission to be there. It had been created by Aliya's mortal grandfather, who had been a well versed follower of Hecate. She told me I was welcome to use it anytime, and that she didn't need it.

I also wrote a letter to Sage, and gave it to Aliya. She had learned some things from her grandfather, and enchanted it to arrive to Sage's family's farm a week after she brought me to the safehouse. It contained instructions on how to get there, and could only be read by the intended recipient. It would burn to ash once read.

* * *

Because of what had happened when I asked for that break, Athena's attempt to kill me did not work.

"How?" Athena demanded, rage flickering in her eyes. Everyone else was quiet, even Zeus. No one interfered.

I didn't give her an answer. I turned toward Aphrodite, toward where Aliya stood by her, attending her during this meeting. I could've sworn Aphrodite gave me a subtle wink as Aliya flashed to my side, grabbed my arm, and flashed us away.

* * *

My days in the safehouse were largely boring and restless. I had nothing to do but wait out the situation, wait for Athena to calm down and for Sage to arrive. I didn't want Sage arriving right away, because he'd no doubt be looked to in trying to find me, and I couldn't have him knowing just yet. I also wanted him there to protect his family in case anyone went after them for what he meant to me. Some gods had done more for less reason.

About an hour before Sage was supposed to arrive, I heard a voice.

No. I didn't hear it. More like it was in my head. It felt like someone was there, too, but when I looked around, there was nothing.

"Mikayla." The voice said. It was soft and feminine. I looked around again, but again, there was no one there.

"Who are you?" I asked. I likely should've felt suspicious, cautious, and all those other things, but the presence was... Comforting. Safe.

"It's not important who I am. All you need know is that I am old, very old. I am an old being, and I wish nothing more than to fade away. But, for that to happen, I need your help." The voice explained.

"What will you have me do?" I asked.

"I can bring you to Greece, but you will have to journey to Athens on your own. I need you to journey to Athens and find my forgotten temple. From there, you can release me from my existence." The voice explained. "But you must hurry. Even now, my enemies search, search to destroy my entire being completely, rather than just allowing my consciousness to fade into the afterlife of the immortal. If they succeed, they will bring this world to ruin."

"How soon must I leave?" I asked, deciding to help. I couldn't let the world come to ruin. And, though it could be a trap, it really didn't seem like it. I didn't know why, but I completely trusted this... Presence, voice, whatever it was.

"Immediately." The voice told me. "To help me, you must put the needs of others above your own needs and wants." Sage was supposed to be arriving quite soon. I wouldn't get to see him. And I wouldn't see him for who knows how long, however long I was away.

I took a deep breath and steeled my nerves. "I'll help you." I announced.

One moment, I was standing in the living room of the safehouse, wearing casual clothing and armed with weapons, just in case. The next, I was standing on a beach, a forest in front of me, and wearing a very different outfit.

I had on a sky blue Greek chiton, like the ones women might wear in ancient times, a leather belt holding it closed. The leather belt held only a ceremonial looking dagger, and a small pouch holding a vial full of clear liquid. My hair was done up intricately, with strings of pearls and jewelled clasps. I wore no shoes. Also, my undergarments seemed to have been replaced with a kinda uncomfortable pair of leather shorts, and a band of fabric wrapped around my body instead of a bra.

Apparently, I had to wear all ancient clothing and arms. No modern things. Not even a proper ancient weapon, either. I had a feeling the dagger was definitely meant for something I'd have to do later on.

I had no idea what direction to go in or how to find the forgotten temple. I doubted I could just stop by a local convenience store and ask for directions. So I picked a random direction into the forest and began walking. I figured I'd eventually get there, even if I needed to be hurrying, because there was nothing else for me to do.

* * *

The first life I came across was an old woman, on the outskirts of a small town. She was standing outside a small hut, wrapped in a cloak. She called out to me as I passed by, and I paused. "Have you any food or change to spare for a poor widow?"

"I have no food." I told her. Then I realized something. "Sell these, I don't need them." I reached up to my hair and began pulling out the pearls and jewels, and gave them all to her. It left my hair flowing down my back, unbound, but I didn't need it up.

"You are very kind, miss." She said, placing them into a pocket in her cloak. "A bit of advice for your journey: something dark brews near. Careful as you go along your way."

I nodded once and began walking again. Her advice troubled me, though. Was she a clear sighted mortal? Or a demigod? Or was she simply a mortal who noticed something bad going on nearby?

* * *

I continued for three days. On the morning of the third day, I felt like I was being followed down a lonely dirt road, and broke into a run. Whatever it was chased after me, until I finally made it to a town and lost myself in the crowds at an open air market. I didn't dare look back to see what it was, not wanting to risk slowing.

It was during the afternoon of the third day that I ran into the young woman. Well, more like she offered me directions to the place I sought, in exchange for a favor, telling me she was a fortune teller. Which meant she wanted me to steal an amulet from a stall in the market. I agreed, if only because I had no idea where to go. And because she explained that it was an important family heirloom, one the man had stolen from her mother a year ago.

The amulet was a pretty green stone, carved and polished and set in iron. It hung on a thick iron chain, and seemed to be the vendor's most bragged piece.

I didn't generally like the idea of stealing, but this man was obviously rich, by the way his clothes looked and by the way he threw about his money. I also didn't mind so much because I'd seen him bullying a poor man who'd earlier wanted to buy a gold wedding ring for the woman he loved.

In the vendor's haste to get rid of the man, he pushed right through two little girls carrying baskets of eggs, and had simply shooed them away when they asked him to pay for all the eggs he'd broken.

The poor man gave the girls the rest of his money so they wouldn't go home empty handed.

Because of what I'd seen happen, I didn't think anything of stealing from the vendor. I pretended to be a customer, interested in purchasing a necklace, and got him talking about his wares. When he wasn't looking, I slipped the amulet off the display it hung on, and replaced it with a mist version that looked and felt like the real thing. It'd disappear once I was far enough away.

While he was taking out a necklace from it's box, I slipped away.

On my way back to the young woman who'd offered me directions, I pressed a golden ring into the hands of the poor man, offering no explanation and slipping through the crowd before he could say anything.

* * *

**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	6. Chapter 5

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

* * *

The young woman sent me North, following the stars and sun and forest. She said I would find my destination, but not without interference. That worried me. It could mean anything, and I kept thinking back to whatever had chased me into that market in the first place.

I found the temple after a week. I lived off of what plants I could, and slept high in the branches of trees, away from anything that might attack me on the ground.

But I wasn't expecting anything like what was there. I didn't only find the temple, but I also found two children. Identical twin girls, they looked to be about seven years old.

They seemed to be alone, but I knew someone must be near. Because they were tied up, sitting on the ground in torn, dirty dresses, their backs against each other and their hands tied together. Their feet were tied, too, so they couldn't move.

One of the girls noticed me. Her eyes widened, and she mouthed something. I couldn't tell what she was trying to tell me, so I moved closer.

One thing I realized, as I kept moving closer, was that I was terrible at reading lips. When I knelt down by them, she whispered to me. "Please help us. They're going to sell us. They'll be killed, of course, they don't care who's hurt, they find it fun. They just want us dead."

Her twin whispered as I began to try to untie their hands. "You won't be able to untie these knots, they're much too complicated. And the wire can't be cut by anything short of special cutters."

"Is there anything I can do?" I asked desperately. I heard footsteps approaching, and I didn't even want to imagine what horrors these girls had already faced and would face if they weren't freed.

Neither girl had an answer. I looked around, searching for something, anything. Silver glinted in the sunlight filtering into the clearing, and I noticed a flask dropped in the dirt. I picked it up and opened it. It was filled with alcohol.

So I did the only thing I could think of. I took the vial from my belt, and I dumped it into the flask. I could only hope it was something that might drug them, and not something meant to help myself. There was also a very real possibility that it was poison, and that these people would die, but I had to take that chance. If it did kill them, at least they'd have that mercy over the death of whoever was to take these girls.

I had just tossed the flask away and began again trying to untie the knots when the footsteps reached the clearing. Whatever conversation they were having faded as they noticed me. "Well, look what we have here, Adam, a pretty little thing trying to take our profit from us."

"If she's gonna take from us, Jeremy, I say we deserve to take from her." The other responded. They both came toward me, and I kept trying to untie the knots on the girls. I wasn't worried about the men, I'd taken on creatures bigger and nastier than them before.

I wasn't worried, that was, until one of them grabbed me with a superhuman strength and threw me to the ground. He was much stronger than any mortal should have been. And while Achilles's curse protected my skin, it did nothing against him slipping a set of manacles over my wrists and attaching the end of the chain to a stake in the ground I hadn't noticed because the girls were leaning on it.

He got back up and stepped back beside his friend, who had picked up the forgotten flask. "What d'you think, Adam, do we wait for the rest of the group or should we get started with her now?" He asked with a leering grin towards me. I glared back at him.

"Let's wait, it'll be more fun. We've got awhile to wait for them to collect those ones, anyway." The other said.

* * *

It didn't take long for the others to get back. They all laughed and whistled when they saw me, but none of them bothered me for the time being.

Instead, they started a campfire, the others had apparently been collecting wood, and hunting. They got themselves a dinner cooking once the fire was set up. I could just feel the heat from the small fire from where I sat with the girls.

While the men talked and laughed, the girls started explaining their situation to me, whispering quietly. They had bad people after them, people who were after all their family and them. Those people were offering a reward for their capture, but it wasn't real. They said that those people were just going to kill these men for sport before they took their time and had their fun tearing them apart.

They told me not to worry, though, because they only came at night and they couldn't enter the temple. So if whatever I had put in that flask worked, (which, if it did, it would get to all the men because they shared the flask), then they could help me out of the chains and I could take the wire cutters one of the men had on him, and get them out. Then we could hide in the temple.

That was the second clue that things weren't normal. First, the superhuman strength. Now, people who only came at night and who couldn't enter a temple. I wondered what the girls were, for these people to be hunting them.

* * *

It was getting closer to night fall when the men finished their dinner and began looking over at us. One of them came over and took the chains off of me. I tried to stand and fight, but with the way I'd been sitting, my limbs had fallen asleep and I could do nothing. The men all laughed as he pushed me to the ground.

I tried again to fight as he pinned me to the ground and stuck a hand under my chiton, but it did nothing. The other men all came over and cheered him on. I silently prayed to every god or goddess I could think of that whatever was in that vial kicked in soon. And I knew a lot of gods and goddesses.

I started screaming when the man reached up farther under the chiton. He backhanded me across the face for it, but I didn't stop. The twins looked away, and I noticed that one of them was quietly sobbing. I wished they didn't have to be here for something like this.

"Stop screaming for lover boy. He can't save you." One of them sneered. I hadn't even realized I'd been screaming a name. Sage.

It was at that moment that the entire clearing darkened, so much so that it was almost pitch black, with just enough light to see by. Every one of the men looked toward a spot that I couldn't see. "Get your filthy hands off of her." I knew that voice, but I didn't. I'd never heard it so angry, so full of rage.

The men at least looked unnerved by the sudden darkness and his appearance from the forest. But one of the men swaggered up to him to get in his face. "And what are you going to do if we don't?" He asked smugly.

The man pinning me to the ground melted into shadows, and I pulled myself into a sitting position, my knees hugged against my chest. The one man who had gone forward did not see, but his friends did, and they all stiffened. When there was silence, the man turned around to see why.

And then he too stiffened, because Sage had a dagger at his throat. Sage glared at the rest of the men, four of them. "Untie those children." He demanded.

One of them started to protest, but another quickly got to work cutting the wires when the other two suddenly dropped dead. When the children were free, he stepped back quickly, not wanting to risk what Sage might do. I don't think either of them realized I'd slipped something in their alcohol.

"None of you will ever touch a woman again. None of you will ever touch a child again. And if I ever hear of any of you doing anything remotely like what you've done and tried to do tonight, I will hunt you down like deer, and I will kill you." He ordered. The two men both nodded vigorously, then took off running. Sage held onto the one man who's throat he had a dagger at for a moment longer, then he let go of him. The man ran fast.

Sage came over to me and dropped to his knees in front of me. "I got your letter, Mikayla." He murmured. "I went, but you disappeared just as I got there. You didn't see me. I tried to follow, just making wherever you were my destination. But something held me back, and I couldn't follow for a few days. When I could, I was somewhere on the coast of Greece. So I picked a direction and went walking. I was somewhere in the forest when I heard you screaming."

"I'm sorry." I whispered. "I'm sorry. Are you okay? You just killed someone-"

"Mikayla, I killed my own brother. These men that were hurting you, that was nothing. Granted, we've already determined that my brother had no soul, he never went to Hades after he died, and he also tried to destroy everything I know and love, so there's that." Sage cut me off. "And Mikayla, I would do anything for you. You're my best friend."

One of the twins spoke. They were standing now, but hadn't moved. "Back away from her, please. You'll have to stall them. They draw closer sooner than they were to, attracted by the surge of power. They'll kill us all if we don't get her into the temple." Sage took a few steps back, while I stood and brushed myself off.

"Why don't we all go in, now?" Sage asked. "Protect her there."

The other twin spoke. "The suppliant must perform the sacred ritual alone. Do not worry, they cannot enter the temple. Only when this world falls to their reign will they be able to enter, and if we succeed, we can hopefully hold them away for centuries to come."

"If she has to do whatever it is she's agreed to do alone, then how are you two supposed to go in there?" Sage asked, narrowing his eyes at them. They only gave him a smile.

Four figures entered the clearing.

And then I screamed and backed away, walking so far backwards that my back hit a column of the temple. The two girls were standing on the steps, just outside the open doorway.

The creatures were the creatures that plagued my nightmares. The ugly, demonic creatures that killed my friends and family in my dreams every night. They were gray skinned, like stone. They looked mostly humanoid, but they had sharp fangs and claws and glowing red eyes. I knew, from my nightmares, that they could shift into wolf forms, wolves the size of bears.

Before Sage could go to me, the figures looked right at him, and one of them spoke in a gravelly voice. "Ah, Tartarus, wonderful to meet you!" Sage blinked at them, surprised to be recognized and greeted like that.

Another spoke. "Tartarus, I see you've caught our prey, and a girl. Why don't you hand them over to us, and you can join us. We can give you everything you've ever wanted, power, money, recognition, anything. Much more than you'll ever get up on Olympus where they've been forcing you to reside. Why do you think your predecessor moved into the pit?"

"What are you going to do with them?" Sage asked. How he made himself sound curious, I'll never know. But I did know he was stalling them.

"The children must die, there is just simply no other way. But the girl..." The one speaking looked to me. "Have you come to join her court? If so, you must die. Well, you'll die either way, but it'll be so much more fun if you've already joined her court."

They all turned to Sage. "So, Tartarus, care to join us?"

"I already have everything I want on Olympus." Sage told them. Then he blasted them with a bolt of darkness. I would've stayed to help, somehow, but the girls pulled me into the temple and told to me to run for the altar. So I had to turn around and leave him behind once again.

The small temple was quiet and empty, so it didn't take long for us to get to the center. When we reached the center chamber, I realized it wasn't we, but me. The girls had slipped away at some point.

I stepped cautiously forward. There was a small altar at the center, a simple column of marble with a silver bowl resting atop it.

I wasn't really sure what to do. I took another step forward.

"The ritual may very well kill you. This is your last chance to choose not to accept. What will you do?" The voice and presence were back.

"I've come this far, I'm not backing out now." I announced.

"This is what you must do, then." The voice told me.

* * *

When the ritual had been explained to me, I took a deep breath, and then I began.

I approached the altar, and set the dagger from my belt atop it. I removed the chiton I wore, cast it aside, and knelt in front of the altar. I set a hand on each side of the altar, and images flooded my mind.

The only thing I could think of when I saw the images was pain. Suffering. Cruelty. The images showed me every single last wrong in the world, every instance of evil or bad. The images showed me all the bad in the world, past, present, and future, and even showed me all the bad in myself.

I don't know how long the images lasted, an hour or days, a week or months.

I don't know when I started crying, either, but I was crying. The tears ran down my face and fell on the dagger, before slipping off and pooling in the silver bowl of the altar.

The images finally ended with what the world would be like if those creatures outside were to win, if they were to take over.

With the images gone, I picked up the dagger with one hand, and gathered my hair in the other. I chopped off most of it, so that it reached just above my shoulders, rather than the middle of my back.

I set the dagger back on the altar, and stood. "Please Fates, allow me to help right the wrong in the world. Allow me to do what I can to help, allow me to do my part in saving this world from all it's evils." I pleaded in ancient Greek.

A young woman materialized on the empty dais behind the altar. Her form flickered and shifted through the forms of many different young women, all come here to try to help the voice that had led them here.

She gave me a smile, then dissolved into a mist. The mist surrounded me, entered me, through my mouth, my nose, my ears.

It happened within seconds, and the moment it ended, I collapsed.

* * *

**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	7. Chapter 6

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

* * *

**~Sage's POV~**

"Where is she?" Athena demanded, pacing back and forth in front of me.

"I've told you already, I've told you the same don't thing everyday for the past six months!" I growled. Ares's assistant struck me again. They'd gone with knives, today.

"You're lying! Where is my daughter?" Athena screamed.

I screamed right back at her. I'd become desensitized to the pain at this point. "Mikayla is dead! She's dead and she's never coming back!" I didn't let myself cry like I desperately wanted to.

* * *

After Mikayla had gone into that temple, I'd had to fight the creatures. They hadn't stayed long. One of them had lunged at me, shifting into some monstrous wolf form, but I'd thrown it aside and into the side of a tree. Then they'd all glanced at the temple, then turned and left.

I don't know exactly how long I'd waited outside the temple, but, finally, one of the twin girls returned. She'd made me swear on the Styx not to tell anyone what she told me or about what had happened, saying it could put alot of people in danger, and I'd done so. Then she told me that Mikayla hadn't survived. She told me Mikayla had died.

To put it bluntly, that clearing was larger when I left than it was when I arrived. The temple remained unharmed, by whatever forces kept it the way it had been since ancient times, but the surrounding trees? Gone.

I'd returned to Olympus after that. Not too long after, I was summoned to Olympus. They'd finally turned to me in their search for Mikayla.

When I got there, Athena surprised me. She put some enchanted chains on me, ones that kept me from using any sort of godly power whatsoever. And she questioned me. About Mikayla, where Mikayla was, what I had done with Mikayla. Didn't care when I told her the truth, that I didn't do anything with Mikayla, she left on her own and she did something and now she was dead.

Not the entire council agreed with Athena keeping me locked up, at least. Really, only a few of them did. Ares agreed, only because he thought it was fun to hurt people, and would often hurt me himself, rather than having one of his assistants help Athena beat answers out of me. Artemis agreed with her, but only because she'd always seen Mikayla as a potential huntress, and thought that my time spent in her company was corrupting her, that I was just some nasty scum of the earth like what she thought all men to be. And Zeus agreed, if only because he was afraid of me and my power and Athena kept me contained.

None of the rest of the council could go against Zeus's order. They might have been able, if Poseidon and Hades were on Olympus. I knew Hades would be on my side, he'd really become like another father figure to me as he trained me. I didn't know for sure about Poseidon, but I knew his moral compass was getting better than it had been, especially due to his loyalty to his son and what he thought his son would choose.

But neither of Zeus's brothers were on Olympus. Olympus had conveniently closed down right after Mikayla had vanished with Aliya. No one could get in or out, nor could they get messages through. All contact was cut.

Hades, though, had gone back down to the Underworld to govern the souls and keep things running, Persephone going with him because she felt like spending more time with her husband. The seasons were no longer affected by where she spent her time, like in ancient times, which gave her more freedom. And Poseidon had gone back to the seas to protect him realm against some petty wars waged on him by multiple old sea deities and spirits. I doubted either of them even knew what was going on.

The other Olympians who did not agree with how I was treated did what they could to help. Athena didn't care what happened to me while she wasn't questioning me. Apollo would bring over salves and creams and do his best to heal me. Demeter made sure I had food when I was locked in the iron cage in the corner of the throne room, which was most of the time. Dionysus, on more than one occasion, offered me enough alcohol to forget the day's events. I accepted a few times. Hestia took to starting and tending her fire near enough to me that I kept warm. Hermes brought me items and objects whenever I requested them, usually a photo or something from Mikayla and I's home. Hephaestus gave me a fully functional cybernetic hand, after Ares got a little too excited one day. Hera constantly tried to get her husband to lift his orders. Aphrodite would make sure I had company so that I would not get bored. She would usually send Aliya to sit outside the cage and just talk to me.

Aliya hadn't been punished after she helped Mikayla. She had returned to Olympus, and Athena had wanted to kill her then and there, but Aphrodite stopped her. Aliya hadn't broken a single law or disregarded a single order. She'd in fact had Aphrodite's express permission to take her friend away from any dangerous situation that may have arisen. Athena didn't like it, but Aphrodite would not back down, and Zeus had been forced to allow Aliya to remain without consequence because of his own orders, because there had been no order against her helping Mikayla.

I knew that Aphrodite always sent Aliya because Aliya was Mikayla's friend. Most times, Aliya and I would talk about her. Aliya and I actually became friends, though nowhere near as close as Mikayla and I were. I confided many things in her, things I'd never been able to say to Mikayla.

All in all, things were pretty good for being kept in a cage and tortured every morning in front of the assembled council that was still on Olympus. She always did it in front of all of them, always did it right when the daily meeting started, so they'd have to stay and see. She was showing them that she had more power currently, that Zeus sided with her on this.

Ares was about to strike me again for screaming at Athena when a cold voice ordered, "Stop right where you are."

Everyone looked to where the voice had come from, to the entrance of the throne room. There was a girl standing there, probably somewhere around sixteen. She had shoulder length hair, dark brown with a silky and lustrous look. Her eyes were deep blue, like the ocean, or like sapphires. She was wearing a pale blue hoodie and jeans. I had no idea who she was, and no one else seemed to know, either.

"Who are you?" Athena demanded.

"I suppose none of you would recognize me. I haven't been corporeal since even the ancient times." She drawled.

"What do you speak of, girl?" Zeus asked.

"Don't presume to call me girl. I am far older than you are, and you would do well to remember it." Her blue eyes seemed to light on fire when she said that, but it passed quickly. "Does nothing give it away? I guess I've been too subtle with the hints." Her form flickered, and she was wearing a pale blue dress instead of the hoodie and jeans. She wore a small and simple diadem on her head, made completely of dark blue sapphire.

Zeus blanched at the sight. "It can't be." He said.

"It can, indeed." The girl said. Her form flickered back into the hoodie and jeans, but she kept the diadem. "I am corporeal once again."

"We welcome you to Olympus, Eleos." Zeus said. "A feast shall be prepared, and a ball, perhaps."

"No." She said.

"No?" Zeus asked. He sounded not afraid, not angry, but almost like he was trying very hard not to offend her.

"I don't need a feast, I don't need a ball." Eleos waved a hand dismissively. "But there is something you can do for me."

"Anything." Zeus said a little too quickly.

"Great. Release him." She gestured to me. Zeus began to protest, but she cut him off. "Did you not just say that you would do anything? Because I have plenty of witnesses here that could attest to you saying that."

"Of course, Eleos." Zeus said. "Athena, release the boy."

"I will not-" Athena was cut off by a death glare from Zeus. She begrudgingly took the chains off of my wrists. Whoever this Eleos chick was, she was powerful or important or both.

"With all due respect, Eleos, you must know that we cannot allow the boy to run rampant. He's the embodiment of evil, he's the new Tartarus." Zeus started.

"And that is where you are wrong, my friend." Eleos announced. "You know full well that the embodiment of evil has nothing to do with Tartarus. You know full well exactly who the embodiment of all evil is, who my enemy is, who those who seek to end me are."

"Furthermore," she continued, "you know full well that this boy has done not a single thing wrong in his entire mortal life, nor in his entire immortal life. In fact, he's a perfect candidate for my court if he were to so choose."

"Ah, yes, your court. They're welcome to stay on Olympus." Zeus offered. "But I really must disagree with you about the boy. While he may not be as bad as your enemy, he does happen to be-"

She cut him off again. "I vouch for him." Zeus blinked in surprise. She spoke louder. "I vouch for him. You all know what that means. Lay a hand on him at all, and you'll face the judgement of Styx. She'll decide whether you're within the rules or breaking your vows."

Zeus next tried to change the topic. "Eleos, why don't you tell us about your becoming corporeal?"

She glanced towards me but looked away so quickly that I wondered if it'd actually happened. "There are some secrets I can and will not share. All I will tell you is that I was approached by Eleos and that I succeeded where others like me have failed. I released her from her existence to fade away as gods do, and I took her place. I am the new Eleos, like Sage Tucker is the new Tartarus." She explained. "It has gone differently for me than it did for him, but it was much the same. Her immortal soul did fade away, and her essence did meld with my own soul, but I retain much of her knowledge, which Sage does not."

"Who were you, before?" Zeus asked.

She shook her head. "That is not something I am at liberty of discussing. Not now, if ever." She answered. "Now, I'll be taking my leave. Sage, if you'll come with me, please."

I made my way over to her, slowly, trying to ignore the golden blood dripping down from the wounds I'd already received before she arrived. She looked to Ares, then Athena, then back to Zeus. "You three are in for the time of your immortal lives." She declared. "You've managed to piss of a whole bunch of gods, now they've heard all about what's been happening because you've been lax with keeping Olympus closed today."

"What?" Zeus asked.

"Hades sees Sage almost like a son. Poseidon's moral compass points to whatever Percy would do, and while the boy's never met Sage, he's met family members of his, and actually became pretty good friends with two of them living in New Rome." Eleos explained. "As for gods related to his family, there's quite a few. Physis, Aether, Apollo, Hermes, Aphrodite, Hypnos, Iris, and Hecate. And who was it, Hephaestus, you're getting friendly with his sister?"

"Wait, Orianne what?" I asked.

Hephaestus looked down, a blush on his face. "She's got an inventor's mind, with all her new and innovative hair designs." He muttered. He glanced apologetically at me.

"That's fine, just don't hurt her. I'm happy as long as Orianne's happy." I told him. It was true, of course, if my sister was happy with someone, then I wouldn't force them away. He smiled a little, but didn't meet my gaze.

"C'mon, Sage. Come with me. We'll leave them to figure out what the hell they're doing now on their own." Eleos said to me, nodding towards the doors. "I'll heal you once we get you home. Let's head to your house."

She flashed us there once the doors were closed behind us. We appeared in the bathroom, where she retrieved a first aid kit and instructed me to sit on the edge of the bath tub.

"So, who exactly are you?" I asked as she began cutting cloth for bandages.

"I am Eleos." She said. "The original Eleos was seen as more a concept than a deity in ancient Greece, and so what the people believed became reality. She became a presence, rather than the goddess she was born as. She was okay with that, because she was a concept they tried to practice."

"What was the... Concept?" I asked. She lifted my torn shirt from shoulders and tossed it on the floor. I hissed through my teeth when she set a wash cloth with some form of antiseptic on it against one of my wounds.

"Pity. Mercy. Clemency. Compassion." She answered. "My Roman form is forgiveness and mercy, but there's really no difference between my forms like there is for some gods. The name of my Roman form, Clementia, also means humanity in Latin. Basically, I am supposed to be the embodiment of good."

"Who were you before?" I asked. "Before you were Eleos?"

There was an almost shattered look in her eyes. "Who I was no longer matters. I can't tell anyone, and I can't be me ever again. It's best if everyone just forgets about me." She responded.

"You can't tell anyone?" I asked slowly.

"No. I have to keep my identity a secret to protect those I love. My enemy would only hurt them to get to me. They are mortal, and they can die easily. And I wouldn't wish the pain on my immortal loved ones. If my enemy were to get to me, this world would fall to ruin." She said. She tied a bandage just a little tighter than need be around my chest, but I don't think she realized it.

"You have mortal family?" I asked.

"I was, am, a mortal. I was born a demigod, but now I am neither demigod nor goddess. I am mortal, but I have the powers of a minor god and powers uniquely my own that I have yet to understand." She explained quietly. "My enemy has killed many a young girl in her efforts to help the original Eleos, but they do not know that I remain mortal now that I have succeeded. They do not even know that I have succeeded. It is best for it to stay that way as long as possible. Already, they try to exterminate my court. If they can destroy every member of my court, then I will be forced to face them. And if it comes down to that, then I know that it is nearly impossible for me to win. As long as at least one person remains to carry on my court, then they cannot get to me without having to physically search and travel to reach me."

"You mentioned something earlier, you said I'd be a perfect candidate for your court." I didn't really ask a question, but she understood what I was trying to figure out.

"You have a pure heart, Sage Tucker. Any and all who wish to join my court may, so long as they truly wish to do so, and so long as there lies no ulterior motive in their heart. My court fights the good fight, doing what good they can in the world. Before I was corporeal, it was that you had to travel to my ancestral home to become a member of my court. It is why my court has always been small. There have been honorary members all over the world, but they were not true members. Now, though, any can join at any time, because I am back and stronger than before." She explained. "It is an opportunity for anyone who wishes to do good in the world. Many reach honorary status, but you must know of it to join, first of all. My court has long been comprised of mortals, clear sighted mortals, demigods, minor gods, satyrs and nymphs and other nature spirits, and many other supernatural races. My court is a welcoming place to anyone who wants to be there, and have always acted as a family."

"You would really let the ruler of Tartarus join your court?" I asked.

She gave me a smile. "It would be my honor to have you join if you so wished."

She worked on my wounds in silence for the next few minutes. When she was done, I spoke again. "I think I'd like to join."

Her eyes shone happily. "You already have. You became a member the moment you decided in your heart that you'd like to join." She told me. Then she flashed away.

* * *

Eleos stayed in the guest room of my house while my wounds healed, which took a long time, because Ares certainly knew how to make wounds last. She helped me around the house, and would check on the bandages every so often, and change them when they soaked through with gold. That still got me, even after years of being immortal, having golden blood instead of red.

It was six weeks before they were finally healed, three before they were healed enough for me to actually go out and do things without her disapproving looks.

The first thing I did was go spend time with my family, seeing as I up and left one day then didn't return for like seven months. They were all glad to see me, but stopped asking why I'd been gone so long after they saw my reaction to their questions.

* * *

**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	8. Chapter 7

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

* * *

Eleos offered to go find a new place to stay after I'd healed, but I told her she could keep the guest room because Mikayla and I had never had guests over, anyways, and I wasn't about to start. The guest room was on the bottom floor, past the kitchen and living room. There was a wide hallway between the room and the bathroom, and a set of sliding glass doors led to the backyard. The other two bedrooms, mine and Mikayla's, were on the second floor.

I went in Mikayla's room alot. I'd go in and spend hours at a time just sitting on her loveseat by the window, or laying on her bed, or sitting at her desk. I'd pick random objects up and just stare at them.

The first time Eleos found me in there she'd just stood at the door and looked around at the room. I hadn't said anything, and she'd left soon after. The second time, I'd merely said she could come in. She'd entered and looked around at the photos of Mikayla and I, or Mikayla and her friends and family, pinned up all over the walls. The third time, she'd stood by the desk and just set a comforting hand on my shoulder, staying there until I finally got up.

Eleos and I slowly became friends. I had my grief to overcome, and she had the loss of her mortal identity. And something else she never said anything about, but that I could tell was always haunting her, there on the edge of her consciousness. We refrained from talking about the things that hurt us, and we bonded over everything else. She would tell me stories about her court and their family like bond, and I would tell her stories about my family and the farm. She would laugh along with me after a story about me and my cousins, and would cry along with me when things got a little too close to the past.

It was on the third night after I'd healed that I found out Eleos got nightmares like Mikayla did. Before then, I'd been sleeping heavily, the healing taking more out of me than I would have liked to admit.

* * *

I was awake, trying to fall asleep sometime in the middle of the night, when I heard a muffled thump from downstairs. Of course, I went to go investigate it.

Nothing seemed amiss anywhere in the house, so I went to Eleos's door and knocked. "Everything alright?" I called. There was no answer, so I opened the door slowly and went in, shutting the door softly behind me.

Eleos was sitting in the middle of her bed, clutching a pillow to her chest, tears streaming out of her eyes, which were shut tight. I noticed that there was a photo album sitting on the floor, halfway across the room from the bed, likely knocked off of her nightstand. I went over and set it back on the nightstand, then turned to Eleos.

"Are you okay?" I asked her. She shook her head. I climbed onto the bed and sat next to her, wrapping my arms around her small torso. "Is this okay?" She nodded and leaned into me, still crying.

"What happened?" I asked. "Nightmare?"

"Yeah." Her voice was quiet and hoarse. "I get them alot. But everyone I know thinks I'm dead, so I couldn't go to anyone."

"Why don't you tell me about it?" I suggested. "I always used to help Mikayla with her nightmares, and telling someone about it seemed to really help for her. Maybe it'll work for you. When you explain it, things seem less real, she said."

"But it is real." Eleos said. "Or, it's a real possibility. I've seen all the bad and evil in this world, every last bit of it, from the dawn of time to the end of the world, and I've seen the possibilities of what will happen if my enemy were to take over."

"You can see the future and into the past?" I asked.

"No, when I underwent the ritual, it shows you images. All the evil in the world, and then what the world will come to if the enemy takes over. It even shows you the bad in yourself, which is a hard thing for most anyone to face. But I saw it all." Eleos explained.

"What are your nightmares about, then?" I asked gently.

"I know the face of my enemy, and it is them that I see in my nightmares. I see them hurting my family and my friends, torturing and maiming and killing them. I see them doing all the things that they would do if they were to find out my identity." She explained. I hadn't even realized she'd stopped crying until the tears started again.

"Well, they haven't found out your identity yet, or you would've known that they did. I doubt they'd keep quiet about it. So there's that. And if you keep doing whatever it is you're doing to hide yourself from them, you should be fine, right?" I asked.

"I can only hope." She murmured. She was starting to fall asleep.

"It's not so bad. Everything's alright for now, and worrying will only make things harder." I told her.

"I am not worried. I am afraid, Sage Tucker, deeply afraid of what will happen once they do find out my identity. Because they will show no mercy, and they will kill everyone I love in order to get to me, and likely will kill them for sport when they are done with me." She said. A yawn interrupted whatever she was about to say. But then her voice was scarily clear and calm as she spoke again. "Because I would gladly let this entire world be torn apart and burned to ashes for the safety of my loved ones."

I didn't say anything, mostly because she fell asleep as soon as she said that, but I understood the feeling. If it came to my loved ones or the world? I'd choose my loved ones in a heartbeat. Most people would say they'd choose the world, but when it really came to it, the decision was alot harder than it looked at face value.

* * *

The next months passed by without anything out of the ordinary happening.

Eleos continued having her nightmares, and it became routine for me to go down to her room to check on her in the middle of the night, every night, because I found that she usually woke around two in the morning. Sometimes she was still asleep when I went to check on her, but I would just climb up on the bed next to her and stay there to be there for her when she needed it. I usually ended up staying with her all night because she usually fell asleep on me.

Eleos would attend every council meeting on Olympus, and she would invite me to go with her, saying I deserved to know what was going on and to be a part of some of the decision making around Olympus just as much as she was. I didn't really care as much about the politics, but I always joined her.

Athena glared at me every time we went, but that was nothing compared to the hatred on her face when she looked at Eleos. She really hated that Eleos had taken away the power she'd had, and that Eleos continued to exercise her own power on Olympus, even if she never once abused it.

Eleos and I would hang out, or I'd hang out with Aliya, or the three of us would all hang out. I became even closer with Eleos, and my friendship with Aliya also progressed, they both became close friends of mine. My only close friends.

I also spent some of my time with my family, and Eleos would join me some of the time, saying she wanted to see the people she always heard stories about, but most times she'd stay home. She did her best to not go anywhere or draw any attention that might lead to her enemy finding her alive, and she also had a hard time seeing one mortal family when she couldn't see her own.

* * *

When I woke, I immediately shut my eyes against the light filtering in through the open curtains that made my head pound. There was a laugh, and Aliya, who I'd noticed leaning on the wall next to the door, spoke. "Yeah, you're major hungover. I brought you some of the stuff Apollo gave me the recipe for." Something landed on the bed beside me.

I sat up slowly and grabbed the vial. I tossed it back, gulping it down quickly, because Aliya had given it to me once or twice before and it was absolutely disgusting, but it worked wonders.

"What even happened last night?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.

"You fucked up is what happened." Aliya informed me.

"I was at your party, and I was drinking, and..." I groaned.

"You remember?" Aliya asked. "I saw you from across the room. You were drunk, and you started kissing Eleos. I'm fairly certain she was also at least slightly intoxicated, but she started kissing you back. You two were really getting into it, but then you said something to her and she pushed you away and ran out. I think she was crying. You just grabbed another drink and chugged it, then another, and then you left. I followed to make sure you weren't going to do something stupid, but you just came back here and fell asleep. What did you say to her?"

"I... I don't even know where it came from, but... I called her Mikayla." I whispered the last part. Aliya stared at me for a moment, then whistled.

"Yeah, you fucked up. You need to apologize. Poor girl probably doesn't know what to think. But you don't have time to do it now, before the meeting, so do it after, alright? She's already left for the meeting, but I'll wait for you to get ready." Aliya ordered.

"Will do." I replied.

Eleos didn't look at me at all during the meeting. She refused to meet my gaze. Aliya had offered for me to sit with her, but I'd just taken my seat by Eleos. So when Aliya saw me staring at Eleos, she gave me a sympathetic look that also told me I'd better apologize to her later.

* * *

**~Eleos's POV~**

When the end of the meeting rolled around, pretty much everyone in the council room couldn't wait to get on with their day. The entire meeting was dominated by a petty argument over which of two minor gods deserved a chariot they'd built. Zeus eventually just told them to share it equally and everyone else readily agreed.

I'd spent the meeting concentrating on the arguing gods rather than on Sage sitting beside me and looking at almost nothing else but me during the meeting. I didn't once look at him. I wanted to, but I knew my resolve would crack if I did, and I just couldn't let myself get close to him in the way that I wanted to. I just couldn't.

Most of the room, except for a couple of the Olympians and a few minor gods here and there, had emptied out already when Styx appeared.

Everyone who was standing around, idly chatting, immediately froze. She didn't often frequent Olympus, and never left her home in the Underworld unless she had good reason.

Which of course meant she looked straight at me. "Eleos, I trust you've been well?" Her eyes sparkled amusedly, and I realized that of course she would know who I was.

"As well as can possibly be expected." I answered lightly.

"It's good to hear." She responded. "Do you know the reason that I'm here?" The sapphire diadem I wore suddenly felt heavier. I'd taken to wearing it during meetings and things on Olympus so everyone remembered exactly who I was now. And it helped me try and get over who I had been, so I'd also been wearing it anywhere and everywhere out of the house.

"I don't believe I do, no." I had a creeping feeling in the back of my mind that I knew exactly why she was here.

"Your oath to the son of Aphrodite holds. You'd do well to remember." Styx warned. Aphrodite perked up at the mention of one of her children. "I would so hate having to punish you. I've been fond of you since I met you."

"You tried to kill me when I met you." I pointed out with a small smile.

She laughed and waved a hand. "Just a courtesy extended to any who feel the need to touch my river. I admire your strength of will." She gave me a knowing look and my cheeks colored slightly. Then tears welled in my eyes, threatening to fall.

"The girl who made that vow is dead, Styx. I'm no longer her." I said.

Her tone turned solemn. "Eleos, you may be a changed girl from the one you were you before, but you are not dead like so many who knew you believe. And that means that your oath to the son of Aphrodite holds."

"I've broken no oath." I said slowly. "You must understand that what happened was perfectly acceptable in the terms of the oath. I did nothing wrong, nothing against what I swore to do for him when he suffered in his grief."

"I know that you did not." Styx said gently. "I only came to warn you that you toe the line, and it is easy to fall into the wrong side."

"My actions do not depend solely on myself. They depend on others, as well." I said quietly.

"You know that you have no troubles in that regard." Styx told me gently, subtly glancing at Sage so that no one else noticed. "But you mustn't only do it for the sake of keeping the oath. Eleos, if you won't let yourself feel, it's only a matter of time before you become an emotionless shell. If you won't do it for the sake of the oath, let yourself fall for the sake of saving your own self." The tears spilled over, and a couple traced their way down my cheeks. Styx smiled sadly at me, then flashed away.

The moment she was gone, I flashed back home and locked myself in my room. Not the one I had to currently stay in, the guest room, but my bedroom. I laid down on my bed and stared at the ceiling, wondering why life had to be the way it was.

* * *

I was surprised, to say the least, when Aphrodite flashed into my room. I sat up quickly, especially wary that she had found me in a room she knew only to be Mikayla Leanne's, and not belonging to Eleos.

"Relax, Eleos, I know who you are." Aphrodite told me, taking a seat in the desk chair and spinning it to face me.

"How?" I asked.

"I had my suspicions from the moment you showed up in the throne room for the first time and told them to stop right where they were." She explained. "I am, after all, the goddess of love, and your bond with Sage was always such a rare sort that I couldn't not suspect it was you. It wasn't as strong before you had to leave behind your name, but it's only strengthened since and it's unmistakable to me now.

"Even so, I had no concrete proof. It is even rarer still that that sort of love bond be in place for another when one is lost, but it is still possible. So, when Styx mentioned that you swore an oath to one of my sons, I visited the only one that you knew." Aphrodite continued. "And Jacob is the only son of mine who's had a girl swear an oath on the Styx to him in a time of his own grief in the last sixty years. You really should be careful how much you say." I felt myself blush a little.

"Why are you here, then?" I asked. "If you know who I am, why haven't you gone to tell everyone?"

She gave me a stern look. "Do you really think me so shallow, Mikayla?" She asked. "I won't tell anyone who you are. I respect your decision to keep your identity secret, and I understand what the consequences would be were it to get out about who you are."

"Then why did you come?" I asked. "Just to tell me that you know who I am?"

"My main reasons in coming here were to tell you that you do need to take Styx's advice to heart, I've no wish to see you turn into a lesser version of yourself that cannot feel, I've seen it happen even to the best of us; and I came to tell you that your old life is not so far away. You can, at least, have Jacob back now that he knows." Aphrodite told me.

"He knows?" I asked.

"He always was a smart one, my son. I barely had the words out of my mouth before he knew you weren't actually dead and that that was why I was asking. I told him you'd explain to him, and that you would meet him at his school when classes ended for the day." Aphrodite said. "But now, I must be going. Sage will be back soon, I had Aliya stall him so that I might have a word with you about your connection to my son."

"Before you go," I said hesitantly, "if you were able to figure it out from the very start, is there anyone else who would have been able, with abilities like yours?"

"The ability to sense love must be very strong indeed for one to sense the sort of love you two have, and even much stronger for them to recognize it before you were gone. Only one other person has known, and no one else has a strong enough ability to figure it out from the bond alone. She's known it about as long as I have, and confided in me her thoughts, which I shared, and she has sworn to tell no one of your identity." Aphrodite answered.

"Who?" I asked quietly.

Just before she flashed away, she said a name I'd never have expected. "Aliya."

* * *

**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	9. Chapter 8

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

* * *

**Previously on More Than A Friend:**

"She's known it about as long as I have, and confided in me her thoughts, which I shared, and she has sworn to tell no one of your identity." Aphrodite answered.

"Who?" I asked quietly.

Just before she flashed away, she said a name I'd never have expected. "Aliya."

* * *

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. One of my best friends knew I was alive.

I'd thought of Aliya as more a sort-of friend before I lost that friendship with my 'dying', not realizing how close we actually were until I'd lost that friendship. So when I found she'd become close friends with Sage, I was delighted to be able to hang out with her and have some of the closeness back, even if it couldn't be the same as before.

But for her to have known, all along, that we were already friends, already close, and for her to have to pretend that that didn't ever happen like I'd had to pretend... That must've been hard.

I heard the front door open downstairs and quickly left the room. I couldn't have Sage finding me in there by myself, he'd wonder. And it wasn't as if he wasn't smart, but the enchantment helped to keep everyone from figuring out who I was. It hadn't worked for Aphrodite or Aliya because they'd had real possibility to go by.

I went downstairs and entered the living room just as Sage came in from the entryway. "Eleos, I wanted to-" I cut him off. I really wasn't trying to be rude, but I had too many things on my mind.

"Can't talk now." I said quickly, walking past him and stopping before Aliya. My voice came out slower this time. "You knew."

"I did." She responded. Sage was looking at us with a confused look.

"Why didn't you say anything?" I asked. "If you knew, you could've talked to me."

"While I was sure, it wasn't one hundred percent, and I didn't want to take that off chance and be wrong. That would've hurt more than it did pretending I didn't know you. But I knew, especially with your attitude and your demeanor and behavior, I knew it was you." She told me. I didn't say anything else, just threw my arms around her and hugged her. She hugged me back, and whispered low enough Sage couldn't hear. "I missed you, Mick."

A tear fell down my cheek as I pulled away from her. "You and me need to catch up, sometime, alright?"

"Yeah, we will. You're not getting out of my company that easily." She teased. I laughed.

I turned back to Sage. "We can talk later, okay?" I offered. "Aphrodite said she told her son I'd meet him and explain things because when she went asking around about an oath made to one of her children, he figured it out."

"So, Aphrodite, her son, and Aliya know who you are?" Sage asked. I nodded. "How did Aliya know?" He turned to her.

"Same way Aphrodite knew." Aliya winked at me and I blushed.

"I'm guessing you're not gonna tell me?" He asked.

"I do wish I could, but even having Aliya, who swore not to tell, Aphrodite, who is very aware of the consequences if anyone finds out, and Aphrodite's son, who I know wouldn't tell a soul, is dangerous. I can't let more people figure it out." I told him quietly. Aliya gave me a sad look.

Sage stepped forward and hugged me. I hugged him back lightly. "You just do what you need to, Eleos." He said. "We can talk later. I'm sorry."

I pulled back, gave him a small smile, then flashed away.

* * *

There was about ten minutes left until the end of classes when I arrived at Jacob's college, where he would currently be a senior. I found his car in the parking lot and leaned against it to wait for him.

When classes ended, crowds of students began pouring out of the building and heading to their cars or to talk to their friends. I didn't see Jacob, so I guessed he was still inside whatever building his last class was in.

"Who the hell are you?" I turned around to see none other than Annika standing in the parking lot in front of me.

"I don't need to answer to you. And you don't need to know." I said simply, picking at my nails. She glared.

"As Jacob's girlfriend, I think I have the right to know who's leaning against his car." Annika spat.

"Ex." I corrected. "You aren't with Jake anymore."

"That'll change soon, and it's none of your business, anyhow." She growled.

"You really think he'll take you back?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I have my ways." She gave me a little smirk. "And a magician never reveals her secrets."

"Cordelia!" Annika's head shot up at Jacob's voice, but I kept my gaze on her and didn't look when he called to me.

Cordelia was my middle name, something very very few people knew. Only my father, Lindsey, Erin, Christian, and his husband, Jacob, Aliya, and Sage knew. And no one would think twice about Jacob calling me Cordelia because for all they knew, that could truly be my name. I never went by it, so no one would draw the conclusion that I wasn't who I said I was. And he couldn't quite go around calling me Mikayla, or even Eleos, in case the wrong ears were to hear. I also hadn't worn my diadem because I didn't want to take the risk of wearing it anywhere but Olympus.

"Hey, Cordy, I'm so glad to see you!" Jacob said as he got closer.

He stopped short when he saw Annika standing there. He looked at me, then at her, then back at me. I sighed exasperatedly. "She doesn't know anything, Jake. She just showed up." I told him. I went over to him to speak in a low tone. "Says she wants to get back with you. I know it's been a long time and you've gotten over her, but don't let anything she says fool you. I want you to use your powers, see if she really does like you. I don't suggest getting back together anyways, but I don't you want you getting hurt again, alright?"

"I do have a girlfriend, Cordy. I'm not gonna just leave her for the likes of Annika." He whispered back.

"You know where to meet me." I told him. He nodded. "Come find me when you're done here."

I looked at Annika. "You're no magician. You have two mortal parents and you do not follow the goddess of magic. You have no power, from any source, and you're not even clear sighted. I could have four heads and you'd never even know the difference." I told her. "Not that I do, though. I'm perfectly normal for a being of my circumstances."

Her jaw dropped, and I smiled at her before flashing away.

* * *

Jacob soon caught up to me at the park, sitting on bench in a secluded area of the park where no one usually went. He came over and sat down next to me.

"So, how'd it go?" I questioned.

"Same as it has been going every week for the past two months. She wants to get back together, I don't. I tell her I'm already dating someone. She tries to convince me but I don't fall for it. She just likes my popularity, not me." He explained.

"Well, you are quite popular, aren't you, Mr. Star Quarterback." I teased.

"It's only college football..." He looked down, his cheeks a little red.

"You'll do great, and you'll be doing this for however long you want to be doing it." I told him. He ducked his head again at the compliment.

"How about you tell me about how things have been for you?" Jacob suggested. "Last I saw you, it was what, almost a year ago? We all thought you'd died. There was a funeral and everything. Closed casket, of course, for the mortals."

"Yeah, some things happened..." I trailed off. "I don't even know where to start."

"How about you start at the beginning?" He suggested.

So I did. I told him everything, beginning with the order from Zeus to follow all our orders, and ending with right now.

"So, you're some big shot immortal goddess now?" Jacob asked, a grin pulling at the side of his mouth.

"Kinda. I'm still a mortal, but I've got eternal youth." I answered. "I am invincible, though."

"That's kinda cool." He said. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out, glancing down at it. He smiled. "Hey, I gotta go, but you better visit again sometime, alright? Angie's waiting for me."

"Angie?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. He blushed.

"She's my girlfriend. Tomorrow's our one year anniversary, and I've got a date to the aquarium planned. It's her favorite place on Earth. Today, we're going to go out for dinner at this little diner she showed me." He explained.

"Favorite place on Earth, huh?" I asked. "You getting serious with her?"

He blushed even redder. "Um, yeah..." He trailed off. "I'm going to propose to her tomorrow. In front of the sharks. She loves them. The only thing I'm worried about is that it might be a little too early, but I really, really love her."

"She'll love it." I told him. "Now, you go ahead and go find your lover. I'll visit again sometime."

* * *

When I got back to Olympus, Aliya and Sage were playing cards at the island in the kitchen. I went over and sat beside Aliya as they finished up their game. Aliya won.

"That was fun, but my mistress calls for me, and you two need to talk." Aliya announced, standing. She gave us each a look that told us we'd better talk and make up, and she flashed away.

Sage gathered up the cards and put a rubber band around them, then tossed them in the drawer on the island. He pulled a slightly bent envelope from his back pocket and tossed it down on the island between us.

"My cousins and Orianne, none of them know, uh, about what's going on, at all, right now. So they don't know that I wanted to talk to you and to apologize, and they're forcing me to go and spend some time with them because I haven't really been visiting. So I wrote this while you were gone, and, um, yeah." He explained. "I really am sorry." Then he walked out of the room and out the front door.

I watched after him for a moment, before picking up the letter and going to my room to read it. I laid down on the bed and opened the envelope, unfolding the paper inside.

_Dear Eleos,_

_I'm really sorry about what happened. I should never have tried to kiss you. I was drunk and I was way out of line._

He seemed to forget that I was kissing him back, and that I wasn't even the least bit drunk. I'd touched no alcohol whatsoever last night.

_I didn't mean to say that, and I'm sorry that I made you cry. I just... I really, really loved her. I was going to propose to her, I had it all planned out, before everything happened and she died. I never even got to tell her I loved her. But it was a stupid idea from the beginning, because I never even knew if she felt for me more than as a friend. I just knew that I really, really loved her._

Tears started dripping down my face. It wasn't a stupid idea. I really, really loved him, I'd just never let myself think about it before_._

_But that's not the point of this letter. The point of this letter is to explain why I said what I did, and to apologize._

_Eleos, you remind me a lot of Mikayla. The way you talk, the way you act, your personality. You're so alike her, yet you're still unabashedly you. And I fell for you, Eleos, really hard._

_Sometimes, though, I get caught up thinking about the past, and even when I think I've put it out of my mind, it's still there, in the back, not completely gone. That's what happened last night. That's why I got so drunk, in the first place, actually._

_And then I saw you, and I was just... Speechless. You were beautiful in that dress, but what struck me the most was how beautiful your eyes looked. And then we were talking, and laughing, and I couldn't help but keep noticing your eyes. And then I kissed you, and everything happened._

_I'm really very sorry, Eleos. I have felt horrible all day since I woke up and remembered making you cry. The look on your face when I accidentally called you that... It broke my heart._

_I'm also sorry that what I did made it so that I did not go to you in the night, like I usually do. It would've been extremely awkward, and neither of us would have wanted to be in that scenario, and I'm sorry I wasn't there for you after your nightmare. I was so drunk that I got home and was out like a light._

_I really hope you can forgive me. If not today or tomorrow, then someday. I'm really sorry, Eleos, and I would do anything to make you forgive me. I really do love you._

_With love and apologies,_

_Sage Tucker_

I set the letter down on the bed. Tears were streaming down my face now. I came to a conclusion that I knew I'd already been at for some time, but that I refused to acknowledge until now: I was deeply in love with Sage Tucker.

* * *

**~Sage's POV~**

"Sage, what is up with you?" Orianne demanded.

"You don't visit us for like forever, and then when we get you down here, you don't even do anything or say anything. You just sit there dejectedly." Brady added.

"Yeah, is everything alright, cuz?" Bailey asked.

I didn't answer, just stared out the window. I wondered how Eleos had reacted to the letter. I'd given it to her seven hours ago.

"Whatever you're thinking about is obviously hurting you." Dustin said.

I continued staring out the window. I didn't really want to talk.

"Sage, whatever you're thinking about, you need to quit it." Hayden told me.

"We're starting to worry." Whit said.

"It's nothing you guys can help with." I said quietly, shifting into a more comfortable position on the couch.

"What happened?" Quinn asked gently.

"I screwed up." I said simply.

"What-" Orianne was cut off by a knock on the front door. She got up to go answer it.

The moment she'd opened the door, she said "I think you need to leave."

Whoever was at the door started to say something, but Orianne cut them off, and I realized who she was speaking to. "He's been spending all of his time up there with you, recently, and he won't even basically speak to us when he is with us. You can go wait up on Olympus-"

"Let her in, Orianne." I called. I heard Orianne sigh, and then two pairs of footsteps entered the living room.

I turned to look at Eleos just as she started crying. I was immediately out of my seat on the couch and standing in front of her. "What happened? What's wrong?" I asked.

"It's Aliya." She said. "They don't even know if she's going to be okay."

"Whatever happened, she has to be okay, right?" I asked. "She's still a goddess."

Eleos shook her head. "No, no, that's not how it works." She told me. "The damage is so bad that they're thinking of revoking her position as Aphrodite's assistant just to let her die and not have to suffer anymore. I don't know what to think about it. I don't want to see her in pain, but I don't want to lose her."

"They're thinking of putting her down like a dog?" I asked incredulously. "We need to go see her."

"No, you can't leave the farm, Sage!" Eleos insisted. "You need to protect your family. You're stronger than them, you always have been. They're actually somewhat afraid of you."

"Who?" I asked with a growing sense of unease.

"My enemy." Eleos said. "My enemy figured out that I'm corporeal now. They figured it out, and they saw that I'm close to her, that Aliya's my best friend."

"It can't have been them." I told her. I wanted to believe it. "They wouldn't have just hurt Aliya, right? Wouldn't they have gone much more public? They would've done something bigger than just hurting one person?"

"You don't understand, Sage. You weren't the one to go try and find her to hang out because the person you wanted to see was with their family." She said. "You didn't find her. You didn't find her on our porch, almost beyond recognition with what they did to her. You didn't find that note, nailed to her body. You didn't see her, and you can't see inside my nightmares, either. It was the exact same as my nightmares."

"There was a note?" I asked softly.

"All it said was 'Found you'." Eleos shuddered.

"What do you think they'll do next?" I asked. "Do you think they knew Aliya knows your identity?"

"I don't think they know, no, who I am. Even if they did, only my nephew knows I'm still alive, and Aphrodite would've said something if he'd been hurt." She said quietly. "And I have no idea what they'll do next. You'll have to stay here to protect your family, because I have no doubts they'd hurt your family just because I'm close to you. But I'll return to Olympus, and I'll find somewhere else to stay. Some of those gods may hate me, but none of them want my enemy to win. It'd be hell for them, too."

"But what about your nightmares? If they're around, and one of them actually happened, it's only going to make it worse." I asked.

"I'm just going to have to deal with it." She said, loosing a breath. "I'll just have to deal with it."

"Stay for tonight, at least." I said. "Let me help a little."

She looked up at me. "I can do that." She took a deep breath. "Tomorrow, I'll go back up. Aphrodite offered for me to stay in her home, the one she uses to get away from everything, that practically no one knows the location of."

I turned to look at my cousins. "Call everyone, and get them here as soon as possible. Call all our parents, call Nikita and Cypress, call Grandma Whitney and Grandpa Samuel and all the other grandparents. Call Mason. Dustin, call your grandparents and your aunt and uncle and your cousin, and call Andrea. If they're a member of this family, get them here. And get Anita, too." I ordered. "And let's all hope to God that those wards are still up from when Chelsey worked on them." They all nodded and began pulling out phones. Whit and Dustin disappeared with her necklace.

"Come on, Eleos, let's go upstairs." I said quietly. She just nodded silently and let me pull her gently up the stairs and down the hall to my old room. It was still my room for when I visited, but my cousins borrowed it when visiting more than I did, spending as much time as possible at the farm.

I pulled her over to the bed, sitting her down, and then went over to my dresser. I rifled through the drawers, trying to find something that might not be overly large on her. When I found something that I thought might fit her, I went over to the bed and gave it to her. "Here, you can sleep in this. It'll be more comfortable than your jeans, but I don't have bottoms that would fit you, so I grabbed something that'd be a little long on you." I told her.

"Thank you." She said quietly.

"It's no problem." I told her.

* * *

Eleos started thrashing around in her sleep sometime around two in the morning. I shook her awake, and she sat up, gasping for breath, tears running down her face. I wrapped my arms around her, and she leaned into me.

"Everything's going to be alright, Eleos." I murmured against her hair. "Nothing's happened, and nothing's going to happen."

"You don't know that." She said. "You can't tell me nothing will happen because you don't know." I had no answer to that, but I just held her tighter.

* * *

Maybe half an hour later, I spoke. "I'll be right back, okay? I just have to go the bathroom."

"Please hurry." She mumbled against my chest.

I assured her I'd be back soon, and got out of the end and left.

When I got back, Eleos was lying on her stomach, the sides of the shirt I'd given her lying to her sides. She must've unbuttoned it because of the heat. It got really warm in my room in the summer. I went over and laid down beside her.

My movements must've stirred her, because she lifted her head to look at me. "Did you really mean it?" She asked quietly. "What you said about how you feel about me?"

"I meant every word." I responded. "I love you, Eleos."

She smiled. "Good. Because I love you, Sage Tucker."

She moved so that she was straddling me, her knees on either side of my hips. I sucked in a breath when her lips landed on my chest.

"What, um," I swallowed hard. "What are you doing?"

She traced a path up my throat, along my jaw, and to my ear with her lips. Her fingers traced lightly across my chest. "I love you, Sage Tucker." Her voice was low. "I love you, and I am not going to allow myself to leave this life without ever having been with you."

She pressed her lips to mine, and I wrapped my arms around her back, pulling her flat against me.

* * *

**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	10. Chapter 9

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

* * *

**Previously on More Than A Friend:**

She moved so that she was straddling me, her knees on either side of my hips. I sucked in a breath when her lips landed on my chest.

"What, um," I swallowed hard. "What are you doing?"

She traced a path up my throat, along my jaw, and to my ear with her lips. Her fingers traced lightly across my chest. "I love you, Sage Tucker." Her voice was low. "I love you, and I am not going to allow myself to leave this life without ever having been with you."

She pressed her lips to mine, and I wrapped my arms around her back, pulling her flat against me.

* * *

I woke up to someone rapping lightly on the bedpost. I opened my eyes and lifted myself onto my elbows. "Yeah?" I asked, voice heavy from sleep.

"Hey, Sage." It was Whit's best friend, and Dustin's cousin's wife, Andrea. So, technically, she could be considered the cousin of all my cousins. "We all got in at an odd hour last night, but why don't you come say good morning to everyone? Some of us haven't seen you almost since you became immortal. That, and some of them have never met you, but would like to meet the so-called god of the family. Mostly my father-in-law, Eric, he doesn't really believe in all that."

"Where's Eleos?" I asked. While Andrea was talking, I had realized she was no longer beside me.

"She's already come down." Andrea told me. "She was hungry, got herself some food. I think she's in the bathroom, now."

"Oh." I said. "I thought she'd left for a minute. Without saying bye."

"She said she was gonna have to leave soon, so you might want to get yourself up and downstairs." Andrea told me, turning to leave.

Once she'd left, I got up and threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Then I went downstairs myself.

I was greeted by a chorus of 'Hey, Sage' and 'Hello'. Everyone had managed to fit into the dining room, living room, and kitchen, somehow. There were alot of people in the family, and the house may have been large, but it wasn't extremely so.

"Sage, how have you been? I haven't seen my son in awhile!" My mom exclaimed when she saw me, coming over to give me a hug.

"Hey, mom." I said, hugging her back. "I like the hair."

"Thanks." She said, touching a hand to her hair. "Orianne touched it up for me."

"She's good at that." I responded.

"Course I am, idiot. I run and work in a salon." Orianne said teasingly, stepping up beside me.

"So you're the 'god' who forced us all here on such short notice and for an undetermined but long amount of time?" A voice asked. I turned around, and it wasn't hard to tell that this was Andrea's father-in-law.

"Hello, Eric. Hey, were you going to eat that?" I asked sarcastically. He glanced down at the plate he was carrying, looking shocked as his sandwich melted into a puddle of darkness that disappeared after a moment.

"Sage, there's no need to be rude." My mom scolded.

"Sorry." I said sheepishly. I waved my hand, and his sandwich reformed. He still looked shocked.

"Why don't you go say hi to everyone? Introduce yourself to the people you haven't met, and greet family who you haven't visited in awhile. And explain the situation." My mom suggested.

* * *

An hour later, I'd greeted everyone. It took so long because of the amount of people in the family, and because I'd stopped and talked to at least half of them.

Also an hour later, Eleos hadn't yet left. I noticed she stayed in the living room, sitting on the couch, legs pulled up under her, staring into space and picking at a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She didn't want to leave just as much as I didn't want her to go.

Done with greeting everyone, I went over and sat beside her. She didn't notice until I gently set my hand on her knee. She jumped a little. "Hey." I said quietly.

"Hey." She answered, voice just as quiet. "I should leave soon."

"Stay with me for the day." I said.

"Sage-" She hesitated.

"This'll be your last chance to hang out for what could be a long time. Hang out with me today, everyone will be fine here for a day, and then you can go to Aphrodite's place." I suggested. "Please, Eleos."

She looked really conflicted, not knowing what to do. Then she made up her mind. "Where do you propose we go?" She asked.

"I've got a couple ideas." I told her.

* * *

**~Eleos's POV~**

We spent the day in a park. We hung out, talked, laughed, messed around, had fun. There might also have been a little bit of making out, but we tried to keep that to a minimum, as we were out in public.

We had a mini picnic for lunch, with food bought from a food truck parked on the side of the road. I used my middle name when ordering, as I'd been doing all day, because we didn't want any of this getting back to my enemy, just in case. We sat down in the grass in the area we'd been hanging out, over by the trees and next to the pond, and we talked and laughed and ate.

About half an hour after we were done, I got up to get rid of the trash and to go to the bathroom in the little building by the entrance of the park. I told Sage I'd be right back and he nodded.

When I got back, I stopped about fifteen feet away. "Sage, toss me the ball." I called. We had a tennis ball, we'd found it on the ground, and we'd been throwing it around and at each other.

He tossed it to me, and I caught it, but frowned at the weight. It wasn't the tennis ball. I looked down at the object in my hands.

It was an apple.

"What-" I stopped speaking abruptly. "Sage?"

When I looked back up at him, he was in front of me, down on one knee, a little box in his hands open to reveal a silver ring set with a gem that shifted colors. I let out a soft gasp.

"Sage?" I asked. A tear snaked it's way down my cheek.

"I love you with all of my heart and soul. And nothing is going to ever change that, because nothing could change the fact that you are you. You'll always be your unique, caring, kind, fiery, beautiful self. And I'll always love you for that." He started. "Will you make me the happiest being in the universe and do me the honor of being mine? Eleos, will you marry me?"

"Sage, you know I have to leave soon..." I protested weakly. Another tear dripped off my face.

"That won't change anything at all. Where you are will never change how much I love you." He told me. "So, Eleos, will you marry me?"

"Yes." I said. "Yes, I would love to marry you." I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him tight. He hugged me back. When I pulled away, he slid the ring onto my hand, and I admired it as it turned a deep sapphire blue and stayed that way.

"So, I say we go do some walking around and window shopping, maybe some real shopping, and then we go out and go for a fancy dinner." Sage suggested.

"I say that's a wonderful plan." I told him. He laughed and linked his arm through mine, and we left the park.

We did end up doing some shopping, though we had to change our ages to look nineteen, because it would be odd for sixteen year olds to be there. We picked out matching wedding rings, simple little silver bands.

After getting the rings, we went to dinner. We dressed up fancy, looked great, and had a fun time.

And after dinner, we went and had a wedding. It was small, and simple, but we didn't need anything big. Hera herself acted as the priest, because it was a wedding and so she knew about it, and she offered to do it for us. We accepted, figuring it'd probably be considered more legal up on Olympus if we had the goddess of marriage do it, rather than a mortal.

Sage wore a suit that he picked out at a shop while I was picking out my wedding dress from a shop beside it. My dress was rather simple, strapless and reaching to my ankles. I wore a pair of white flats with it. My hair was down, falling in loose waves, and I wore no makeup.

We went out for ice cream after the ceremony. He had chocolate, I had vanilla. We walked around the park while we ate, talking and laughing and looking up at the stars, all the while holding hands. A group of people were playing music quite loudly, and so we danced by the pond to end our day, dancing in the same area we'd spent most of the day.

* * *

**~Sage's POV~**

When we got back to the farm, we flashed directly to my room, so we could change. We decided not to outright tell anyone, to keep it from reaching the wrong ears. And because we just wanted it to just be our own thing that no one else needed to know about for awhile.

I just threw on some sweatpants, but Eleos didn't have any clothing here, so she borrowed some of my older sweatpants, still a little big on her, and a soft button down shirt that was big on her, which she wore open over a tank top she borrowed from Orianne. When I told her she looked cute, she blushed madly.

We went downstairs to talk to people and just hang out. She decided she could stay until the next morning, but she really would have to actually leave, so as not to put everyone in danger.

When we got downstairs, my mom came over to us. "How was your day out?" She asked us.

"It was fun." I answered. "How were things back here?"

"Just fine. Normal, boring day, except with a ton of people, half of which I don't even know but tried to get to know, seeing as I'm hosting them in my home." She said, waving a hand.

She glanced down at Eleos's hands, where Eleos was playing with the rings, twisting them around under the long sleeves. "Can I see your left hand?" My mom asked her.

Eleos froze for a moment, but I smiled at her and she extended her hand to my mother slowly. My mom picked up her hand and looked at the gem on the ring I'd given her. "Dark blue." She observed. "It was always yellow for me, around Liam."

"What?" Eleos asked.

"The ring's been passed down through my family for generations upon generations." Mom told her. "A son might receive it and give it to his future partner, or a daughter might receive it and give it to a future child, but it is always passed down. My mother gave it to me, the middle child of five."

"Mom gave it to me on my sixteenth birthday. I was a little too preoccupied with worrying about literally everything that happened that day, so I didn't ask any questions. I asked a little about it later on, though, when I got curious." I told Eleos, slipping an arm around her. She leaned into me.

"The ring is very important. Not just to this family, not just for sentimentality. It is a reminder of hope, that there is hope, and that there will be a better day to come. Take care of it and remember all that it stands for." Mom said. "My mother gave it to me during a bad time in my life, and I gave it to Sage when he seemed to give up on things." I looked down at the ground. I hadn't been my best self when I'd been made Tartarus. I'd been distraught over the death of my cousin, over meeting my brother, over killing my brother, over the entire war and everything I saw on the way as we were all dragged up.

"I think this is the perfect time, then." Eleos murmured. "I could really use some hope, right now. What with Athena, my enemy, Aliya, and everything else. I can only hope, now, that they do not figure out more than just that I am corporeal once again. That they do not realize who I really am, and go after my mortal family. I could not bear it if they got hurt." She rubbed a finger over the gem, repeating the action multiple times as she stared down at it.

"I think we could all do with a bit of hope in our lives." My mom said setting a hand on Eleos's shoulder for a moment. "Some more than others." She turned and went to go talk to her sister-in-law, Whitney.

* * *

Later, I was still awake, unable to sleep. I was laying beside Eleos, just watching her face as she slept. She seemed peaceful.

But then there was a look of horror on her face, and she shot up, gasping for breath, tears falling down her face. I sat up beside her, grabbing hold of her flailing wrists to keep her from hurting herself or me. "Eleos, what's wrong, baby?" I asked. "What happened?"

"No." She gasped. "No, no, no, no. No, we have to go check, we have to go check to make sure he's alive. They can't have gotten to him. They can't!"

"Eleos, it was just a nightmare." I told her gently.

"It was just a nightmare about Aliya, too, and look how that turned out!" She half-yelled.

"Alright, we can go check on whoever." I said. "But we have to be quick, and quiet about it, okay?"

"Okay." She nodded. "I'll flash us to his apartment."

* * *

**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	11. Chapter 10

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

* * *

**Previously on More Than A Friend:**

"Alright, we can go check on whoever." I said. "But we have to be quick, and quiet about it, okay?"

"Okay." She nodded. "I'll flash us to his apartment."

* * *

We appeared in the small living room of an apartment. Eleos immediately called out. "Jake?" There was no answer, it being the middle of the night, so she tried again. "Jake?"

There was the sound of footsteps, from what I assumed was the bedroom, a light clicked on, and a young woman came out. She looked at us warily, and I realized we probably looked strange, Eleos in the nightgown she'd thrown on after our... activities, tears running down her face, and me in only a pair of sweatpants.

"Who the fuck are you, and how the fuck did you get into my apartment?" The girl hissed.

"Does a man named Jake live here? I swear this is the address he gave me, down to the apartment number." Eleos asked.

"What do you want with my-" She was cut off by another voice.

"Angie? What's wrong?" A young man stood in the bedroom doorway, rubbing at his eyes. He glanced to where she was looking, and his jaw dropped. "Cordy?"

"Jake!" Eleos rushed forwards, hugging him. "You're okay. I- I-"

"You still get those nightmares, even after all these years?" He asked quietly.

"I had to be sure you were okay. I couldn't just ignore it." She said. "Not after- Not after Aliya got hurt." I felt a pang at that. I didn't know when I'd next see Aliya, or if I even would be able to.

"Your friend?" Jake asked. "What happened to her?"

"Nightmare came true." Eleos whispered. She stepped back. "I just had to come see that you were okay."

"Jacob, what's going on?" The girl, Angie, asked.

"Angie, this is Cordelia. Cordy, this is Angela." Jacob introduced. "You know, I told you about her when we met."

Eleos smiled. "So you did. Did everything go according to plan?" She asked.

"It did, indeed." Jacob smiled. He held out a hand and Angie went over to stand with him, slipping her hand into his. "We're happily engaged."

"That's great!" Eleos exclaimed. "I'm happy for you. But we should probably be going now. We can't stay long. And I have to go into hiding in the morning."

"You're not even going to introduce this friend of yours?" Jacob asked, looking over at me. There was a mischievous glint in his eye, and I remembered that Eleos's only living relative that knew of her new status was a son of Aphrodite. He knew, then, of our relationship.

"Jake, this is Sage." Eleos blushed, twisting the rings around on her hand. "He's my husband."

"And you didn't even invite me to your wedding?" Jake asked, placing his free hand over his heart. "I thought I was to be your flower girl. I feel so offended."

Eleos laughed. "I was joking when I told you, years ago, that you would be the flower girl at my wedding." She told him. "And it was really a more spur of the moment kinda thing. He proposed today, actually, and we went and had a fancy dinner, and then we had a small little ceremony. Hera knew, because of her domain, and she presided. But she swore not to tell anyone until we decided."

"Eleos," I said softly, "we really do need to get going. Every moment we stay longer is only making it more dangerous for them, for you, and for everyone back at the farm."

"It was good to see you, Jake. Quick question before we go, though, is she still bothering you? Cos I freaked her out, like alot, and I'd be totally happy to do it again to get her to leave you alone, if need be." Eleos said.

"I think you freaked her out enough to leave me alone. She hates the godly world, as you once told me, and seeing that I decided to keep myself surrounded by those from my own world, she finally quit. Your sister was persistent, though." Jake said.

"She's not my sister, Jake. And you were there when she told me I was no sister of hers." Eleos said. "What did you mean by surrounding yourself with people from your world? I thought the only demigods you knew were me, well, before, and your dads." Eleos asked.

"Oh, Angie, she's a demigod. And our circle of friends, they're demigods." Jacob explained.

Eleos looked at Angela. "Oh, who's your godly parent?" She asked.

"Athena." Angela answered.

Eleos laughed. "That's just..." She trailed off, shaking her head. "That's just weird."

"What, the family's not confusing enough for you?" Jacob teased. Eleos laughed again.

"C'mon, Eleos." I said softly. She stepped back over to me and took my hand.

"Yeah, I know." She sighed. "Let's head back."

"Wait." Angela said. She was staring intently at Eleos. She glanced back at a spot in the bedroom that I couldn't see. She looked back at Eleos, and her eyes widened. "Jake?"

She glanced between the two of them, but no one said anything. "You're the girl from his family that died." She said. "You look exactly like her, your features. Even the way you're standing. You're-" She was cut off by Jacob, who had clapped his hand over her mouth. She pushed his hand off, giving him an astonished and angry look. He gave her an apologetic look.

"You can't say my name." Eleos said quietly, her voice clear in the silence. "You have to just call me Cordy, or Eleos, but you should probably just call me Cordy. The less you say about who I am, the safer you are. I can't let another person get hurt just because they knew me, whether they know me now as Eleos or before as the girl I once was. I can't let them hurt someone else."

"What are you talking about?" Angela asked.

"Jake can explain once we're gone. But we've stayed too long already." Eleos told her. "Jake, I might not be able to see you again for a very, very long time. I don't know when it'll be safe to return, or if it'll ever be safe and not risky."

"You just do what you have to." Jake told her quietly. "You keep yourself safe, okay? Swear it to me."

"Jake, I can't promise I'll be safe, because that might not truly be possible." She said.

"Then don't." He said. "Just swear you'll do what you can, you'll try."

"I swear, Jake. I swear I'll try my best, I'll do what I can, to stay safe." She said quietly. "I love you, Jake."

Eleos grabbed my hand and flashed us away, back to the farm.

We managed to sleep for a couple hours before we had to get up in the morning. Eleos left after breakfast.

* * *

**~Eleos's POV~**

"I miss you, baby." Sage said.

"I miss you, too." I told him through the IM. "Love you."

"Love you, too." He replied. I smiled at him one last time and waved a hand through the shimmering mist.

With the IM gone, I flopped back onto my bed. It had been a month and a half since I had left the farm, and I missed Sage really bad. And my days at Aphrodite's were largely boring, my only company being the goddess herself on her twice a month visits.

There was a knock on the door. I immediately have a dagger in hand, warily moving up to beside the door. It's too early for Aphrodite's visit, and the only other presences in this mansion are her invisible magical servants that do things like clean the laundry and cook the food. There shouldn't be anyone knocking on that door.

There's another knock, and then it's opened. I have my dagger to the throat of the figure in the doorway before they can even take a step inside.

"And here I thought you'd be excited to see me." The figure spoke. I dropped the dagger in surprise and took a step back.

"Aliya?" I asked quietly.

She smiled wide. "I'm back, baby."

* * *

"So, how'd they manage to heal you so well? And so quickly?" I asked.

After my initial reaction of hugging her and bursting out crying, we'd gone out to a little garden, and were now sitting at the table on the patio.

"Well, it was an accident, really, at first." Aliya started. "They were going to take away my job, to like, let me go and not suffer and stuff, because damn, was that painful. And they were trying to make it easier by using like nectar and stuff on my wounds while they did it."

"It was the nectar, wasn't it?" I asked.

"Yeah. The nectar kept me alive, and it doesn't heal gods, obviously, but it heals us demigods." Aliya confirmed. "And when it had healed me enough to keep me alive, in that state, they saw hope and they gave me as much as they dared without it burning me up. It was a slow process, and they still had healers and stuff working around the clock, but they gave me nectar and ambrosia as much as possible. And now, well, I'm healed, now."

"I'm just so glad you're okay, Al." I told her. "After I had that nightmare, and then found you exactly like in the nightmare... I was so scared."

She gave me a small smile. "Well, I'm fine. No one can get rid of me that easily." She said. "I'm back and better than ever, and the world had better watch out for Aphrodite's most trusted handmaiden."

"You definitely are a force to be reckoned with." I agreed. We were silent for a few moments.

"Hey, Mick? Are you doing okay?" Aliya asked.

"Yeah, why?" I asked.

"You don't look so hot." She told me. She leaned forward and rested the back of one hand against my forehead, before sitting back again. She frowned. "Well, you're not burning up."

"I mean, I've been feeling a little nauseous recently, but that's probably nerves and all that. Maybe a stomach bug." I shrugged.

"Could be your period, too." She guessed.

I froze. "My period?" I asked.

"Yeah, you know, menstrual cycle, visits once a month and makes life hell?" She asked.

"Aliya..." I trailed off, swallowing hard. "I don't think I've had my period the last two times I was supposed to get it."

The first emotion to pass over her face was shock. Then realization. Then a huge grin appeared on her face. "Mick, you slept with him?" She exclaimed.

"I didn't just sleep with him, I married him." I muttered, looking down at the table. Her jaw dropped.

"You and Sage got married?" She asked. "Tell me when, how, where, I want to know everything!" I laughed at that, and began telling her about all of it. I even told her about the two nights I'd shared with Sage.

"I can't believe you two went and got married." Aliya said. She sighed. "I knew it was bound to happen, you Yeo are literally perfect for each other, and I'm really happy for you. I just wish I had someone like that. Gods, Mick, you've made me jealous!" She laughed.

"You'll find someone, Aliya." I told her. "I mean, how could you not? You're so... you." I gestured to her vaguely, but she understood what I meant and smiled.

"Eventually." She said. "Now, back to earlier, you don't think you've had your period?"

"Well, it's been a month and a half, and I should've had my period twice by now, since I get it at the beginning of the month." I told her.

"I think it's pretty obvious, then, that you're pregnant." Aliya said.

"Yeah." I sighed. "What am I going to do, Aliya? Things are so dangerous, right now, already, and I don't even know how to tell Sage. And on top of that, I don't know how to be a mother. I'm only sixteen, even if I've been alive more than sixteen years."

"Hey, you'll figure it out." Aliya told me, reassuringly. "And you won't be alone. You know I'll help, and Sage would never leave you alone in this. You've got us, and you've got Aphrodite, too, and a couple other gods who I know would be happy to help."

"Thank you, Aliya." I said. "Thank you for that."

"Anytime, Mick." She told me.

* * *

**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	12. Chapter 11

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

* * *

**Time Skip: 9 Months Later**

**~Sage's POV~**

"...And then I knocked the bowl over. So, that was the end of my trying to bake brownies." Eleos told me.

I laughed. "You suck at baking." I teased.

She pouted. "I don't suck at baking. I'm just a bit klutzy right now, is all. She helped me clean up, afterwards, thank the gods. A-phrodite is super nice." She abruptly stopped when she was saying that name, finishing off with Aphrodite's name to cover it up. But I knew her better than that. She was hiding something. But if she wasn't telling me, there was probably a reason for that.

"Did you at least get brownies, though?" I asked.

She smiled wide. "Yeah, they brought me some. I still can't get used to the whole invisible servants thing, though. And they've been doing absolutely everything for me, recently."

"They're just trying to do their jobs, whatever they are, whether magic or being or what have you." I told her. "Anyways, you excited for the meeting tomorrow?"

She hadn't been able to go to the Winter Solstice meeting in December, figuring going to the first huge meeting after she went into hiding would likely be a bad idea, but she was going to attend the Summer Solstice meeting tomorrow. No one except for Aphrodite and I knew she would be attending and no one would know until she arrived, to keep her safer, and I was truly happy to be able to see my wife.

"I wouldn't exactly say I'm excited." She said hesitantly. My smile faltered. She spoke up quickly. "No, I'm totally excited to see you in person! I just meant I'm a little apprehensive about the possibility of danger and everything else hanging over our heads."

"Aphrodite and I are doing everything within our power to keep you safe." I told her.

"I know." She sighed. "I guess I just don't want anyone hurt or anything going wrong."

"I know. None of us want anything to happen." I agreed. "But I think it'll be okay. I love you, Eleos."

She smiled softly at me, but then her face drained of all color. Glancing somewhere off to her side, she yelled at someone I couldn't see in a panicked tone. "It's happening!" She looked back at me, a slightly fearful expression in place. "I love you, Sage." She whispered.

She lifted her hand and waved it through the mist, gone from my view. I didn't know what had happened to make her so fearful, but I hoped I would find out tomorrow, and that everything would be okay. My soul would die if something happened to her.

Eleos never showed up to the Solstice meeting.

* * *

**~Eleos's POV~**

I didn't mean to end the IM with Sage so quickly. But I'd never found a way to tell him I'd gotten pregnant, and I didn't figure telling him the moment after my water broke was the best idea.

I'd kept it hidden the entire time, being mostly careful not to say anything or anything else, and being careful not to be standing or lying down whenever we IMed. He never had a clue.

I felt bad for not telling him, but it was also something I figured would be better off told in person, you know? I didn't want to spring it on him over Iris Message and leave him worrying all day and night until we spoke next.

The labor lasted seventeen long hours. I had twins. I named them Manon and Everly Tucker. They both had deep blue eyes, while Manon had brown hair like Sage's and my own (dyed, not that anyone else knew) hair, Everly with soft blonde hair. The color blue my eyes were now, and the color blonde my hair used to be, before Eleos. If Sage ever asked, it'd be easy to explain away. 'My mortal father had blonde hair.' Not exactly a lie, not at all a lie.

Because of how long it took, and recovery time afterwards, I missed the solstice meeting. Aphrodite informed me she'd told Sage that there was a complication, and I wouldn't be recovered enough to contact him for a few days. He was freaking out and worried about me, but she assured him everything was fine.

Aliya helped me take care of the girls for the first few days after I was finally allowed out of bed. Aphrodite said that the reason it'd taken so long, and the reason it took me so long to heal, might have been because of the ritual I underwent to become Eleos. It was just a theory, that she had no proof whatsoever for, but she said it could've altered me just enough to make certain things, like having children, harder.

All I know is that Athena didn't know how much of a great thing she had when it came to having her own children.

* * *

The fifth day after I was allowed out of bed, I finally IMed Sage. When he answered, he looked extremely worried and disheveled. There were bags under his eyes, and he looked as though he hadn't slept in a week. Which may very well have been possible.

He perked up a little the moment he saw me in the IM, though. "Eleos! Is everything alright? Are you okay? What happened? What-"

"I'm fine, Sage." I cut him off. "Everything's alright, now."

"What happened?" He asked quietly. "You looked so afraid, and I was terrified something bad had happened and I'd never see you again."

"Well," I hesitated, "thing is-"

I didn't have the chance to finish that sentence, because Aliya entered the room with the twins in her arms, not noticing the Iris Message. "Hey, Mi-" She cut herself off abruptly, looking at the IM.

I turned back to it to see Sage with his jaw dropped. "Aliya? What- How- When-" Finally, he gathered himself enough to ask an entire question. "Why are you holding children?"

Aliya and I shared a look, and she nodded slightly. I sighed, ran a hand through my hair. Sage watched quietly, trying to guess at the silent conversation passing between us. Finally, I nodded, swiped through the mist screen, and disappeared form the room.

* * *

Sage wasn't entirely surprised when I appeared in his room. He knew there was no way for me to get out of explaining this one.

"What was that-" He started, but I cut him off again.

"No one will miss you if you're gone for a short amount of time, right?" I asked.

"They all leave me alone when I'm IMing you." He told me.

"Good." I said, and grabbed his hand. It felt amazing to see him in person again after so long, even if it wasn't the best of circumstances and wouldn't be able to last very long.

I brought him to my room in Aphrodite's get-away. I sat down on the bed, and he sat next to me and slipped and arm around my shoulders, and I spoke quietly when I explained.

"I didn't know about Aliya until she showed up here." I told him. "The only people supposed to be here were myself, Aphrodite, and those invisible servant guys, if they're beings and not forces of magic."

He didn't say anything, so I continued. "So, of course, when I hear someone at the door when Aphrodite isn't scheduled to arrive that day, I was wary. I ended up with a knife to her throat before I realized it was her." I explained. "She told me how they managed to heal her - they took away her status, but used nectar and ambrosia to make it less painful. But, being mortal again, the nectar and ambrosia kept her alive. It was a slow and painful process, but it worked, and she lived. Aphrodite gave her her status back."

"But where do the tiny children come in?" Sage asked softly. "Aliya found a guy or...?"

"No, Aliya didn't find a guy." I told him. "I did."

"You what?" Sage asked, hurt clear in his tone.

"Oh, no! I didn't cheat on you, I swear." I exclaimed. "I probably could've phrased that better. Aliya didn't find a guy, but I found you."

"You mean..." Sage trailed off. "You mean they're ours?"

"Yeah." I confirmed.

"But... Why didn't you tell me?" He asked. I didn't meet his eyes.

"I wanted to, I really did. At first, I figured it was something better told in person. And then, I realized that likely wouldn't happen, so I tried to find the right moment, but the right moment never came along." I explained quietly. "I also figured telling you right after my water broke probably wasn't the best idea. But I was also afraid to tell you, afraid of how you'd react, because, you might only be twenty four or five years old since you were born, and I'm older, but we're only sixteen, for the gods sakes and-"

Sage cut me off with his lips on mine. It was a short, sweet kiss, full of love and understanding. I didn't even realize I was crying until he flicked away a tear with his finger. "Hey, Eleos, I understand." He said softly. "I understand, and I love you, and I love them, more than anything in this world. You are my wife and they are my daughters, and you are all my family."

I think she must've been listening at the door, because Aliya chose that exact moment to walk in with Manon and Everly in her arms. I took Everly and she showed Sage how to hold Manon, before sitting down on the bed in front of us.

"Hey, boy." Aliya said in greeting to Sage. "Welcome to our humble abode."

"How ya been, Aliya?" Sage asked, looking down at Manon. There was a smile on his face.

"I've been better, but I've also been worse." Aliya responded. "I still can't believe you two got married, though."

Sage looked up at her with a smile. She gave him a one armed hug, careful not to squash the baby in his arms.

"I always knew you two would end up together, though." Aliya said, with a wink towards me. I blushed slightly, but gave her a dirty look. "Ever since the beginning!" She sang.

"What are their names?" Sage asked me, ignoring Aliya's teasing.

"This is Everly." I said, jerking my chin down towards the child in my arms. "And you're holding Manon. Aliya helped me name them."

"They're wonderful names." Sage said.

"I was hoping you'd like their names. Would've been awkward, otherwise." I said with a laugh.

"Indeed, it would have been." Sage agreed. Aliya just laughed.

* * *

**~Sage's POV~**

I was a little bit upset that Eleos had never told me she was pregnant, that I was a father. But I understood why she hadn't told me, too. She was afraid of telling me, afraid of how I'd react and what it would mean for us. I would've been afraid, too, if the roles were reversed.

I had to go back to the farm all too soon, an hour or so after she flashed us out of my room. I didn't want to leave, but I knew I had to be there to protect my family. I'd originally wondered why we needed to bring the farthest reaches of the family to the farm, but Eleos had told me one day over IM that her enemy would most definitely go after distantly related people to get to any family at all, and thus, us.

* * *

**Time Skip: 3 Months**

**~Sage's POV~**

The first meeting Eleos attended after her going into hiding was just a random meeting. No one was supposed to know she'd be there until she actually gotten there.

I don't know how it all went so wrong, so fast.

The day started off normally enough, I guess. I ate breakfast with my mom, dad, and sister like I did every morning, and then I took a shower and got ready for the weekly meetings held on Olympus to discuss anything and everything.

I sat in my usual seat in the throne room, an audience seat towards the back. I'd taken to sitting there so no one would pay me any attention.

The only difference in this meeting than any other was that Eleos attended, sitting quietly with me in the back row, bringing little attention to herself. Eleos still wore her diadem, but no one ever payed attention to the back row.

Eleos and I sat hand in hand for the entire meeting.

* * *

Things started going downhill at the meeting's end. The twelve Olympians always stayed until everyone else had cleared out, and most everyone had cleared out, while we three spoke to Aphrodite.

"I'd better be getting back. The twins are a handful, and I have faith in Aliya, but she's been doing so much for me, lately." Eleos said softly.

"I'll miss you." I told her, hugging her close and kissing her forehead. "I love you."

"I'll miss you, too." She told me. "I love you, too." Aphrodite smiled softly at the statements, winking at me, and I couldn't help but grin softly.

Eleos had only managed to walk a couple feet away when they showed up.

The creatures from the temple where Mikayla had died. I was immediately seeing red, but they ignored everyone except for Eleos, everyone watching intently and standing frozen.

"Eleos, dear, what a pleasure we finally meet!" The female called. I vaguely remembered killing the other female, and the two males standing behind her, glaring at me, attested to that fact.

"Meeting you is no pleasure of mine." Eleos spat, fire raging in her eyes.

"Pleasure for us, that is." She clarified wickedly. "And it seems we did not need to kill off your entire court to find you. Shame, that would've been such fun."

"You cannot force me to battle you until they are gone, and you will never wipe out my court." Eleos told them angrily.

"Oh, but we don't need to force you to do anything if you'll do it willingly." The female sang happily. "Athena, if you'd be a dear?"

Athena came forward with a small bundle in her arms. It took me all of two seconds to realize what that bundle was. It took Eleos less time than that, stepping forward to grab Athena's arm, but missing as Athena flashed to their sides.

"You'd really do it, then?" Eleos asked, voice not hard or soft or anything else, but clear in the silent room. "You'd give your own grandchild over to someone who would do nothing but torture and kill her?"

Athena didn't have time to react to that, hell, I didn't have time to react to that, because one of the males had grabbed my child and disappeared. Athena stared blankly at Eleos, uncomprehending, while the female and remaining male laughed.

The female then turned to me. "We meet again, Tartarus." She drawled, and I had a bad feeling about whatever she was going to do or say next. My unease was proved absolutely correct at what she said next. "It'll be nice, taking your child's life for your taking our sister's life."

"You were going to kill her, and she died anyways, because you drove her in there, so I think that your stupid little life for a life counter is off!" I said angrily. It was their fault Mikayla was dead. If she hadn't have had to go so she wouldn't die, I might've been able to talk her out of it. I had finally had her back, for a few moments, but they showed up and got her killed.

"Strange, her giving her life for the girl you now call your wife." The female mocked. Eleos looked nervous, at that, but I was tuning out everything around me and focusing my rage on this creature.

"Mikayla was a wonderful, selfless, caring person, and she would do anything for those in need. Eleos and her are similar in that way." I ground out, glaring at her.

The female laughed. "Mikayla and Eleos are much more similar than you might think." She said. I kept glaring at her. "Come now, you can't seriously not have figured it out by now?"

She tutted, and turned to look at Eleos. "Why don't you show us all your true form? Why don't you show your husband who you truly are?"

"This is who I am." Eleos said, voice and emotions guarded.

"Get rid of the petty disguise, the enchantment, the facade you use to hide." The female said, waving a hand dismissively. "And while you're at it, change those eyes. They looked so much better on you when they were gray."

At the creature's last words, Eleos's form flickered. Eleos panicked, at that, and took a step back, but whatever the female had done to rid her of her disguise had worked.

"Don't you see?" The female called. "The girl you love has been standing in front of you the entire time, and not once did she think to tell you!"

Standing a few feet away from me was not Eleos. Was not my wife, the girl I'd come to love ever since she stepped into the throne room and demanded they stop torturing me. Standing in front of me was not the girl who'd had our children, the girl who was the mother of two of the three people I loved the most, the third being that mother herself.

Standing in front of me was the girl who'd been my best friend for six long years. The girl who'd come to me every night because nightmares kept her up, the girl who I'd hold while she cried. The girl I fell for, hard, the girl who's kind gray eyes I'd loved so much.

Standing in front of me, a few feet away, was Mikayla Leanne, the girl who was supposed to be dead.

* * *

**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	13. Chapter 12

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

* * *

**Previously on More Than A Friend:**

Standing in front of me, a few feet away, was Mikayla Leanne, the girl who was supposed to be dead.

* * *

**~Sage's POV~**

I'm not going to lie. I had a mini freak out. All this time, Mikayla hadn't really been dead. All this time, Eleos hadn't been who she'd said she was.

No. That wasn't true. Eleos had specifically said she couldn't tell anyone who she'd been, and that who she'd been was as good as dead. She hadn't lied about that.

What I didn't understand was why she didn't tell me, at least. No, I did understand, because she'd explained many times why she couldn't tell even the people who had been closest to her, not wanting or willing to put anyone in danger or at risk. I guess I was just hurt that she hadn't told me, even when she had a perfectly acceptable reason not to.

That all went through my head in about three seconds, and I wanted to say, or do, something, anything, but the female spoke again, speaking one last time to Eleos. "Lindsey and Gareth Leanne, Christian and Isaac Smith. They all live in the suburbs of Manhattan. Erin Leanne, off to college in Massachusetts, but visiting for the weekend. All your husband's family, gathered up in Ohio. Jacob Smith and Angela Cormack live in a lovely little apartment in the city. The girl was all too ready to help us out on that last one, with a little something slipped in her drink and her believing us mortal hitmen intent on ridding the world of demigods. The only lie was the word mortal."

"That bitch." Mikayla swore. "That little bitch."

"Such nice words to call your sister." The female tittered.

"Annika told me I'm no sister of hers. You should know that, seems you know everything else about me." Mikayla spat.

The female laughed. "You have until noon tomorrow. If you want none of them harmed, you know where you can find us."

"They're your only bargaining tools. You hurt any of them and you know I won't show." Mikayla challenged. She guarded her emotions well, but I could tell she was scared.

"You need a little convincing, then?" The female raised an eyebrow. "How about this?"

The male beside her disappeared. He was back moments later, this time with a fifteen year old girl struggling in his grip. The girl had blonde hair and stormy gray eyes, and wore a yellow sundress.

Mikayla's face paled when she saw the girl. "Bennie." She whispered.

The female held a dagger to the girl's throat. "Does this help convince you at all?" She asked. "We are not afraid to harm any one of them, because you will come, whether you believe at first you will or not. What were your words? 'Because I would gladly let this entire world be torn apart and burned to ashes for the safety of my loved ones.'"

Mikayla stiffened, but the female laughed and held the dagger closer to the girl's throat, a drop of bright red blood appearing. The girl herself had stopped struggling, and now stood staring stonily ahead, not a single muscle moving.

All of a sudden, the female sheathed her dagger. "I think you've been properly convinced. It's noon, now. You have twenty four hours." She said. And just like that, her and the male were gone.

* * *

**~Third Person's POV~**

It was as if time were suspended, when they left. No one moved, or made a noise, or did anything, afraid to break the silence and the odd trance everyone had entered.

The first person to do anything was the girl they'd brought up, and she ran over to Mikayla and threw her arms around her. Mikayla, as if in shock, hugged her back.

When the girl released her, she stepped back and tilted her head as she looked at her. "You broke your own rules, Micky."

"No words about anything else, Bennie?" Mikayla asked. "Not even how I'm here?"

"I always had this feeling, inside. I knew something didn't add up. You'd have made sure people knew you were gone. You'd not have gone without a huge fight, and there will be a ton of fanfare." Bennie told her. "But you broke your own rules. You can't do that, Micky."

"How did I break them?" Mikayla asked softly.

"You let your fear show. That's how they were able to control you into doing what they wanted. You know you're going to go." Bennie told her. "I might've been eight, but I remember your rules. 'If they get a hold of you, or someone or something important to you', you said, 'do not let them see it. Do not let them know. And if they get ahold of you, do not let the fear show. It will only give them more power over you'."

"I guess I broke my own rules." Mikayla whispered, voice broken.

"Yeah, you did. But you can make up for it by going and beating their asses so bad they never come back." Bennie told her.

"It's not that easy, Bennie." Mikayla told her.

"I know it isn't, Micky. But you have just over twenty four hours until you have to go. For now, you can take a little time and catch up with all your family. Especially me, you were my idol when I was eight and you were for the years after, too, though I saw you more as a sister, then." Bennie told her. "Also, it's weird, seeing you sixteen. I'll be sixteen, soon, and you're supposed to be alot older than me."

Mikayla's form flickered, and she was a young adult, maybe twenty, twenty one. "How's that work for you, Bennie? Good?" She asked.

"Good." Bennie told her with a smile. Mikayla pulled her into another hug.

* * *

**~Sage's POV~**

After that conversation, the room exploded into noise and movement and chaos, everyone broken out of that odd trance the creatures had left us in. Everyone clamored to get Mikayla's attention to explain, but then a voice, firm and demanding, called out. "Attention!"

Everyone turned to the voice to see Styx. Beside her, Athena stood bound in dark rope, something like fear in her eyes.

"Mikayla, I see you've held up your oaths." Styx said slyly, looking between Mikayla and I. She blushed and glanced down for a moment. "You held up your oaths, but your mother did not. I figured, since they both have to do with you, you can help me choose her punishment."

"What oaths?" Mikayla asked warily.

"All of the gods have ancient oaths that prevent them from harming Eleos, as you already know." Styx started. "But the day you survived your mother's wrath, due to your dip in my river, your mother made another oath. She swore that if she ever saw you again, she'd kill you herself." Mikayla was careful to keep her face blank, but Bennie looked like she was going to be sick.

"Now, obviously, no matter what she does, one of these oaths will be broken. And I'd really prefer the one broken be the second, so I pulled her in for breaking her vows. She hadn't technically broken them before today, she hadn't seen you as yourself but as Eleos, and so didn't know, and had slight leeway in her oaths, but not anymore."

"And you want me to... Decide what you do about that?" Mikayla asked cautiously.

"Yes." Styx said simply.

Mikayla looked at Bennie and said something in some language I didn't understand. Judging by the looks on everyone's faces as the two conversed, no one else knew what they were speaking, not even Athena, who was glaring between Styx and Mikayla.

Finally, Bennie nodded, glancing at Athena with distaste and a little hate. Then Mikayla spoke. "Take away her power."

"Take away her power?" Styx asked, tilting her head. Beside her, Athena let out protests muffled by the rope gagging her.

"Athena got too caught up in her own power. Because of it, she crossed a line, one not even gods should cross, and one that will take an eternity to cross back over, if she ever does." Mikayla explained. "Power put her into this position, and it would be a fitting justice to take it away."

Styx let out a laugh. "Have I ever told you how much I like you?" She asked. "Most in your place would go far greater lengths and get revenge. But you do not."

"I am not the embodiment of mercy for nothing, Styx." Mikayla said.

Styx seemed to accept this. Clearing her throat, she spoke loud and clear for everyone still in the throne room to hear. "From here onward, there are no longer twelve Olympians. There are eleven, and Athena will be reduced to that of a minor goddess. She is to have no say in major decisions, and no power on Olympus more than the minor gods have. My decision on her punishment for breaking her oaths is final, and any who go against my decision may face their own punishments for breaking oaths on myself."

With that declaration, Styx disappeared, taking Athena with her.

* * *

**~Mikayla's POV~**

When we got back to the house, I fully expected Sage to be angry with me. I expected something, whether yelling or screaming or him ignoring me.

But none of those things happened.

As soon as we got back to the house, I collapsed, crying, onto the couch, and Sage sat down next to me and held me. He held me while I cried, and when I managed to stop after ten or so minutes, he pulled me into a big hug.

"If you're going to yell at me, just get it over with, now, please." I said softly when he let go of me.

"Yell at you?" He asked. His face was a map of confusion. "Why would I yell at you?"

"Because I went and let everyone, even you, think I'd died, and I didn't tell you when I came back, and I let you think I was some other person this entire time, and now everything's all gone to hell." I said, wiping away fresh tears slipping out of my eyes.

"I'm not mad at you." He told me, setting his hands on my shoulders. "Not even close." He pulled me to him again, and kissed the top of my head.

"I love you, Mikayla." His whole body seemed to relax with those words, like some giant weight off his shoulders. "If anything, you should be mad at me."

"What reason would I have to be mad at you?" I asked. "You didn't do anything."

"I fell in love with you as Mikayla." He said. "And then I fell in love with you as Eleos. And the whole time, I felt so guilty, as if I was betraying your memory by falling for Eleos, or betraying Eleos by still loving Mikayla."

"It's not your fault for falling in love, Sage." I told him. "No one can help that, and loving someone you lost isn't at all wrong, either. My father loved Erin's mother more than anything else, and he loves Lindsey, now, too. He loves Cor, even though she's passed, but he still loves Lindsey, too, and there's nothing wrong with that." Sage was silent.

"It took me awhile to come to the realization that I loved you, but I think I always knew."

"I love you, Mick." Sage whispered.

"I love you, too, Sage." I told him. He held me for another moment, but then I pulled away. "We need to go check on Aliya, now."

"Oh my gods, I didn't even think what they might be done to her, what if-" I cut him off.

"They wouldn't have done anything to her. They know I'm going to go, and it gives them more satisfaction showing me that they don't have to do much to control me." I told him.

"You can't go, Mikayla, they'll kill you." He protested.

"I can't have this conversation right now." I said, shaking my head. "Right now, I just need to go see Aliya, and then my family and everyone else who thought I was dead for this past, what? Year, year and a half?"

"Somewhere around there." Sage said softly. He grabbed my hand. "C'mon, let's go see Aliya."

Aliya was duct taped to a chair when we got to Aphrodite's. Sage waved a hand and the duct tape melted into shadows, and Aliya was immediately on her feet, crying and hugging us both. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so, so, sorry." She sobbed. "I had Everly when she came, and I tried to stop them, but one of them was with Athena, and he shifted into that awful form, and it made me remember what they did to me and I had a panic attack and I couldn't stop them from taking her."

"Aliya, it's not your fault." Sage told her, taking her shoulders much like he'd done to me earlier. "I don't think any of us could have stopped them, and anyone would've panicked when faced with that situation. I'm sorry that no one was here to help you with the panic attack, though."

"He didn't take Everly." Aliya said, stepping back. "He was trying to take them both, but I managed to make a mist version of her and he didn't get her, too. Not even Athena knew it was the mist."

"Where is she?" I asked softly.

* * *

Aliya took us to a remote part of the house, a janitor's closet off a deserted hallway not usually used. Everly was inside, nestled among a pile of blankets on the floor.

I knelt down and picked her up, cradling her in my arms. Glancing back at Sage, he read the question in my eyes and nodded, then spoke. "Just let me hold her, first." I handed our baby to him, and he stared down at her as he held her. "She's got Mick hair and Eleos eyes."

"She does." I said softly. Sage passed Everly back to me, and I gave her to Aliya. "Take her somewhere far, far away from here, where no one will find either her or you. Hide her, and keep yourself safe. You're our best friend, Aliya, and we'd like to see the both of you survive this."

"You guys sure you want me to do this?" Aliya asked quietly.

"Yeah." Sage confirmed. "You're likely the best to be able to hide, and we don't want to see you get hurt again. And like Mick said, you're our best friend, Aliya. And there's no one we'd trust more."

"Alright. I'm gonna miss you guys." Aliya said. Sage and I pulled her into a hug, careful not to squish Everly. When we pulled away, she gave us one last small smile before disappearing.

It was all I could do not to break down crying right there.

* * *

We visited my nephew first, because he already knew and it would be easier for me to say goodbye to him. Jake greeted us with a confused hello when we showed up in his apartment, commented on my hair, and burst into tears when I told him I was leaving and most likely would never see him again. He hugged me for a long time, but I eventually told him I had to go visit the rest of my family. Angie gave me a hug, too.

Before I could leave, he made me swear that if there were even a tiny chance for me to come back, I had to take it, no matter how dangerous. I swore it to me, but told him I wouldn't take a chance that put someone else in immense danger.

* * *

Christian and Issac were the second visit. My brother was upset, but he understood, more than anyone, why I had to go. His mind was alike my own in that sense. He viewed the world the same, followed the same logic. Christian and Isaac both told me to take care before we left, even though we all knew that wasn't going to happen.

We visited Sage's family third, and my siblings at camp fourth. It was easier staying goodbye to people who I didn't really know as well. I'd met Sage's family, yeah, but I wasn't really even friends with anyone. As for camp, I only actually knew a few siblings that went to camp, the closest to me being Bennie. I spent maybe an hour with them, and through all their planning and strategizing to get me out of this, I knew I would have to go.

It, strangely, didn't matter much to me anymore. The thought of dying, of being tortured, even. If it made everyone I cared for safe, then so be it. The part that mattered to me was the part where once they'd had their fun torturing me, they'd kill me, and then they would take over the world with their chaos and evil. That was not a world I wanted anyone to have to live in.

The last people we visited were my dad, brother, and stepmom. I twisted my hands nervously after ringing the bell, awaiting the reaction of whoever opened the door.

I didn't expect the reaction I got, nor did I expect the person who opened the door.

* * *

**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	14. Chapter 13

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

* * *

**Previously on More Than A Friend:**

I didn't expect the reaction I got, nor did I expect the person who opened the door.

* * *

The moment the door was opened, I was thrown into a hug. I stood frozen, having absolutely no idea what to do. Annika stepped back, near tears.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, for everything I've done all my life." Annika exclaimed. "I hated you and I hated it because I didn't understand it and now it's my fault that you're going to have to go to them, they drugged me when I was drunk and I wasn't thinking clear, and then they showed me, Mikayla. They showed me what they're going to do." She did start crying at that.

"Slow down, Annika." I said softly. "What are you talking about?"

"Those- those creatures. I was at a party, I'd been drinking, and one of them must've slipped something in my drink. I was just feeling so woozy, and I was feeling so much hate, and when they asked me where they were, I told them. I thought they were normal, like me or anyone else at the party." Annika said, voice filled with fear. "And then they forced these awful images into my mind. What they plan to do to you, to me, to everyone else on this planet. And it scares me, Mikayla."

I chose my words carefully, still insure of how to react to this side of my sister. "They plan to do many things, and while I doubt they showed you the worst, as that would break any mortal's mind and I could barely take it when I saw it all, I still have nightmares every night, I understand the fear you're feeling."

Annika looked down. "I'm sorry, Mikayla." She choked out. "I told them where he is and now they have a way to get to you. Please don't be mad."

"Come here." I instructed, holding out an arm. Annika took a small step forward, but I pulled her into a hug and wrapped my arms around her. She tentatively hugged me back. "It's not your fault. I was a little mad when I found out you'd been the one to tell them, but it wouldn't have changed anything. They knew where every single other person important to me was, excluding my court, who they can't get to at the moment if they remain in the temple's wards, which are weakening either way, but it wouldn't have mattered whether you told them or not. They just wanted to add insult to injury. They know everything about me, how, I don't know, from the moment I was born, to most likely this moment right now. They've even spoken of moments that should've been private because no one else had been there, but they have their ways, and I can't help that."

I let go of Annika and she stepped back. "They already knew?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah." I said softly. "And I forgive you for everything between us, Anni."

She looked up at me and smiled. "You remember that?" She asked softly. "Mom and dad and Erin all forgot."

"I've got a perfect memory, remember?" I said with a soft smile, tapping the side of my head. She smiled softly, but then looked down.

"You're really going to forgive me for everything all these years?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah. I'm not the embodiment of mercy and forgiveness for nothing." I told her. "And all you really did was hate something you didn't understand, but that's something that can be fixed, because you're actually trying."

"Thank you." Annika whispered.

"Hey, you've always been my sister. And family's got to stick up for each other, right?" I asked, pulling her into another hug.

"I haven't done much of that most of my life, so I guess I've got a lot of sticking up to do, huh?" Annika asked. I laughed, but stepped back again.

"So, Annika, seems we're talking now, I'd like you to meet Sage. He's my best friend." I told her.

"You two are dating." She said immediately, looking between us.

"Close, but no cigar." Sage said, wrapping his arms around my waist. I laughed and showed Annika my hand with the ring.

"You're married?" Annika asked.

"Yeah. It was sorta spur of the moment, but we're in love, and neither of us had any problems with the little ceremony. We just wanted to be together." I explained.

"Dad's so gonna wanna know this right away." Annika said excitedly. "And- oh my god, I have some people you need to meet!"

Annika grabbed my hand and pulled me into the house. Sage followed behind us, laughing.

"Annika, who was at the door?" Dad called, starting to stand from his seat on the couch. Lindsay and Erin were on the couch, and there was a guy on the loveseat, a crib beside him.

Dad froze when he saw me. I gave a tiny wave. "Hi, Daddy." I said quietly.

"Mikayla?" He asked quietly. The room was so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Lindsay, Erin, and my dad all stared at me, while Annika moved silently over to the guy on the chair and sat beside him.

"It's me, dad. I never died." I told him.

Then he was rushing forward, hugging me, and Lindsay and Erin were joining him in a group hug. I hugged them all back tightly, and a couple tears fell, before my dad backed up and said, with a laugh, "Let her breathe, guys!"

I sat in one of the seats to the kitchen counter that walled the kicthen off from the living room, and Sag sat beside me. My family retook theis spots on the couch.

"How- how are you here?" Erin asked. "We didn't know you'd died until Jacob told us, his mom told him after everything happened up there."

"It worked, didn't it?" Lindsay asked me. "When you came to me, it worked, right?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much how this whole mess started." I confirmed.

"When you came to her?" Dad asked. "What?"

"This was way back when Zeus made his decree that all of us assistants and such could leave back to a mortal life or remain and follow our patron's orders, with three strikes, and if we got those strikes, we'd be sent back to a mortal life. Overpopulation and such, even with new developments being built on the ever expanding floating land that is Olympus." I started. "Obviously, I stayed, my job meant a lot to me, helping people around the world and such. But mom decided that now that I absolutely had to follow her orders, she could tell me I wasn't allowed to see Sage anymore." Sage took my hand and squeezed it softly. I squeezed back.

"She'd take you away from your own best friend?" Dad asked, covering his mouth.

"She told me he was a bad influence, all because she was judging him for the powers he now has, ever since everything happened with his brother." I said. "Mom didn't make me move out of kick him out, though, she knew I was much too sentimental for that, but she told me I wasn't to spend any time with him or talk to him. Once I got two strikes, Sage packed up and left. He didn't want me to lose my job anymore than I did, but not having him there absolutely killed me.

"You remember my nightmares, right, dad?" I asked. He nodded. "I never once did stop getting them. But Sage helped. I wasn't in the best place before, on my own, and it was worse after he left. I couldn't sleep and the nightmares were killing me. Mom couldn't even see it." I shook my head.

"And that's when you came to me." Lindsay said softly.

"Yeah. I knew it wouldn't be long before I snapped at her, especially with her always berating me that I wasn't doing as well anymore, so I came here and I asked for your blessing to take a dip in the Styx." I agreed. "I spent that weekend off doing that and making all my arrangements. Aliya helped. God, she's always been such a great friend, and I didn't even realize it until I couldn't be as close friends with her anymore."

"You went in the Styx?" Erin exclaimed. "Do you know how dangerous that is? Mick, you could've died!"

"I've almost died so many times that it seems like nothing." I shrugged. "Anyways, when I presented my next proposal, which would need approval from the entire council, as it affected all of them, I didn't do my very best. The project was for a camp out in the middle of the country, easier for people to reach, but Athena scolded me after on how badly I'd presented it. Demeter stopped her, said I'd just had an off day, and that they all knew how my projects went and that she wanted to see this one through, as did everyone else. But Athena didn't care that I'd gotten approval, she just told me I knew I had my proposal today and I didn't come prepared.

"I told her I had been prepared. I just hadn't slept. She asked why I hadn't, did I wish to leave my job and return to a mortal life? I snapped at her, then, told her maybe I did want to, that I was immortal but her orders were slowly killing me. She told me I didn't get to blame her for something she did to protect me." I said, letting out a long breath. "So I told her I quit. I told her I was done with sleepless nights and bloody hands and slowly dying inside, all because she didn't like somebody. She got really angry at that."

"What did she do?" Dad's voice was barely above a whisper.

I laughed humorlessly. "She knew quitting would have immediately made me mortal again. Yet she still decided to kill me. It didn't work."

There was silence after that, pretty much everyone disbelieving. Then I continued.

"What happened after that, well, Aliya took me to her grandfather's safehouse, he was a well versed follower of Hecate, and Athena couldn't do anything about that because I no longer followed her orders and because Aphrodite had specifically given Aliya orders to help her friend. Athena was really mad about that." I said. "I spent about a week there, and an hour before Sage was supposed to come meet me, I'd sent him a letter, a voice came out of nowhere asking me to help her, and I don't know why, but I trusted the voice, so I did what she said.

"Sent me to Greece with nothing but ancient clothing and a ceremonial dagger. I travelled, on foot, for awhile, helped some people along the way, before I found these two little girls, twins, tied up outside a temple. I heard footsteps, so I tossed a vial I'd had into a flask nearby, then tried to help them, but these guys, stronger than a mortal should have been, caught me. They left us there all day, and only at night did they decide to do anything." I continued. I took a deep breath, looking down. Sage held my hand even tighter.

"What happened then?" Annika asked softly. "Why'd they tie up two little girls?"

"When they first tied me up by the girls, they mentioned something about profit. The girls told me, later, that the men were going to sell them, but that the ones who were coming to collect them would just kill the men for fun and then kill them, they wanted their entire family dead." I explained. "As for what they did... It was close to night fall when they remembered they had me over there. One of them decided he was going to try to rape me. Gods, I didn't even know I was screaming a name until he told me to stop.

"But then he was there. I'd never heard Sage so angry, and one of them got cocky, so the man on top of me melted into shadows. The other men were rightfully scared, then, and the one who'd gotten cocky turned around, only to have a dagger held to his throat. Sage told them to untie the children, which one of them did, while another started to protest, and another two dropped dead. I was glad they'd a shared the flask." I explained. "Sage threatened them, the last two men ran off, and Sage released the man he'd been holding, who ran off, too."

"And everything was okay then?" Dad asked hopefully, even though we all knew it wasn't true.

"Not at all." Sage said, wrapping an arm around me. "I explained how I'd caught her leaving, and had followed, but the twins told me to back away. Said she had to enter the temple alone. That 'they' drew closer because of the surge of power, when I'd frightened those men. Twins said they'd kill us all if we didn't get Mick into the temple, and I said we should all go in and protect her there, but they said she had to go in alone, and that they couldn't enter the temple until this world fell to them."

Sage took a deep breath before continuing. I was glad he'd taken over this part of the story. I couldn't talk about the ritual. Not only because I didn't want to, but because I was bound by oath. It was the only thing my enemy did not know about, could not know about.

"I was suspicious of the girls, since they said only Mick could go in, but they planned to go in, too." Sage continued. Then he hesitated.

"You can continue." I told him softly. "Everyone now knows, they know. You're released from your oath. Styx herself will back me up on this."

"The girls only smiled at me, and then these four creatures showed up. They immediately addressed me by my title, Tartarus, and then they asked me to join them. Said they could give me so much more than I ever wanted, more than Olympus would ever give me. I asked what they meant to do with the girls." Sage said quietly. "They said the children had to die, there was no other way. And they said Mick had to die, too, but that it would be more fun if she'd already joined some court.

"Then they asked me again to join them. I told them I had everything I wanted on Olympus, and I threw a blast of power at them, to keep them away from the girls. The twins tugged Mick into the temple, leaving me out there with the creatures. One of them lunged at me. I threw it so hard that I heard it's bones crack when it hit the tree line. It was horrible." Sage shuddered. "The other three just looked at me, looked at the temple, and left.

"I don't know how long I waited outside that temple. Eventually, one of the twins came out and told me that Mick had died. I was devastated. The temple remained the same, but the clearing was a lot larger when I left than when I'd arrived." Sage said. "I went back to our house on Olympus. Eventually, they finally turned to me in their search for Mick, and the council summoned me. Athena surprised me when I got there. Enchanted chains, they took away my powers. I could do nothing while she questioned me over and over again.

"Most of the council didn't agree with what she did for the next six months. Really, only Ares, because he loves violence, Artemis, because she'd wanted Mick as a huntress and thought I'd corrupted her out of it, and Zeus, because he was afraid of my power as the new Tartarus." Sage laughed humorlessly. "She tortured me in front of the whole council at the beginning of every meeting, to show them she was in power and not them, Zeus had given her power. Hades, he'd become like another father figure to me when he helped me learn to control my powers, didn't know, because Olympus had closed down immediately, and he was in his realm. Same for Poseidon, who I might not have known, but who I know would've sided with Hades on this because his son is friends with my cousin's godmother, and Percy would never have wanted anyone hurt like this.

"The other Olympian gods did what they could to help. With Olympus closed down, no one else knew anything, all contact had been cut. Until six months after I returned." Sage said. "Ares was about to hit me again for screaming at Athena when she showed up. None of us knew it was Mick."

"Aphrodite knew." I said. "Not right away, but she had her guess, and Aliya figured it out and shared her reasons, and they agreed it was me."

"I guess they knew, then." Sage corrected himself. "But she showed up, her hair was brown, her eyes blue, and no one seemed to know who she was. Zeus almost had a cow when she showed off the diadem."

I smiled. "Yeah, he was way too eager to do whatever I wanted. He wanted to throw me a ball and a feast." I said. "He protested at first when I told him to release Sage, but he had to when I told them all I vouched for him and that if anyone so much as laid a finger on him, they'd have Styx to answer to. Athena hated me for it. I'd come waltzing in and taken away her power just like that."

"Right before we left, she told Zeus that those of them who'd sided with Athena had a lot of angry gods to contend with, and she listed off a whole bunch of gods related to my family." Sage said. "Zeus even looked afraid, especially when you mentioned Physis and Aether."

"Physis is a force to be reckoned with." I said. "I mean, you definitely don't want mother nature angry with you, do you? Her and Gaea's domains overlap, so while Gaea is Mother Earth, Physis is Mother Nature."

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**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	15. Chapter 14

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

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**Previously on More Than A Friend:**

"Physis is a force to be reckoned with." I said. "I mean, you definitely don't want mother nature angry with you, do you? Her and Gaea's domains overlap, so while Gaea is Mother Earth, Physis is Mother Nature."

* * *

"And what all happened after that?" Dad asked. "What made you have to come here to tell us this?"

"Well, the next few months were pretty normal. No one knew she was Mick yet, but Eleos stayed in the house with me, in the spare bedroom. I hadn't minded, and the house felt empty without someone else there." Sage started. "Some stuff happened, Styx showed up at a meeting and warned Eleos she was toeing the line on one of her oaths from her previous self, and that her oath to the son of Aphrodite was, indeed, still to be held."

"I went back to house right after that. Aphrodite found me not too long later, in my old room, where she should have expected me to be. She told me she'd figured it out, and that she'd had her suspicions from the start, but that Jacob was the only son of hers to have had a girl swear an oath to themself in a time of grief in the past sixty years." I explained. "She also told me Jake figured it out when she asked about it, and that the first one to figure it out had been Aliya. I was so glad to know that I'd have my friend back again."

"When she came downstairs, I tried to apologize for what had happened before the meeting." Sage said with a soft smile. "She told me she want trying to be rude, but she couldn't talk then. She went straight past me to Aliya, they hugged, and promised to catch up sometime. She told me we could talk later, but that she needed to go visit her nephew after what Aphrodite had told her.

"When she came back, Aliya and I were playing cards. She left, saying something about how her mistress called for her. I knew she just wanted to give us some privacy. I wanted to talk, but my sister and cousins had told me I had better get to the farm." Sage said. "They hadn't seen me in awhile, and I couldn't let them down like that. I really hadn't spent as much time with my family once I became a god, and the I disappeared for six months when Athena took me, and then, for the months after that, I hadn't even really been visiting. So I gave her a letter and left to go visit my family.

"The whole time I was there, I was moping around. They tried to get me out out of it, they were worried about me, they said. When Eleos showed up at the door, Orianne tried to tell her to leave, but I told her to let her in. She started crying when she came in, and I was immediately worried." Sage said. "She told me how she'd found Aliya. That the note had said they'd found her. She said she'd have to return to Olympus and find somewhere else to stay. I was worried about her and her nightmares, so I told her to stay, at least for a night, because if they'd actually shown up, then her nightmares would be worse."

"I made him and his cousins get all of their family to the farm. They were afraid of Sage, I knew, and if he could stay to protect all of his family, they wouldn't go near them to get to me. I knew they'd go after anyone to get to me, and the only people they knew were close to me were Sage and Aliya, and they'd already gone after Aliya, who didn't have any mortal family left." I continued. "I stayed with them at the farm that night, and in the morning, just kind of curled up on the couch, staring off into nothing. I didn't want to leave without saying goodbye to Sage, but he had to greet all of his family members, half of them people he'd never met from his cousin's husband's side of the family.

"But Sage convinced me to stay for another day. Said it'd be my last chance to hang out for who knew how long. So I stayed." I said. A soft smile formed on my face. "We hung out at a park. At one point, he threw me an apple instead of the tennis ball."

"He did not." Erin exclaimed, sitting up straighter. "No way."

"Yes way." I laughed.

"I can't believe it! My little sister's all grown up!" Erin said, jumping up and coming over to hug me.

"Erin, I'm older than you!" I told him, hugging him back.

"You look, what, twenty? I'm twenty four now, thanks." Erin said.

"Twenty one. Mostly because Bennie's older now and she thought it was weird that I was the same age." I told him.

"Anyone care to tell the rest of us what's going on?" Lindsay asked.

Erin returned to his seat, and then explained. "In ancient Greece, an apple thrown at a girl was a marriage proposal. The same holds true for demigods who like tradition."

My dad and Lindsay both gaped at me. I looked down, blushing. "Hera officiated the ceremony later that day. I had to leave soon, but neither of us cared. We just wanted to be together while we could."

"My little girl's married." Dad murmured. I got up and went over and hugged him. "I can't believe my little girl's married."

I hugged Lindsay, too, before returning to my seat. "So, after that, I went to Aphrodite's secret home. I left the next morning. She and I are somewhat friends, and she's also my nephew's mother, so I guess you could technically call her my sister? Yeah, that's weird to think about." I said. "A month and a half after being there, Aliya showed up. They'd been planning on revoking her immortality so she could die in peace, but then the ambrosia was healing her, so they had hope. She and I caught up a little, we figured out I was pregnant, etcetera etcetera."

"Pregnant?" Dad asked. "I'm a grandfather?"

I winced, looking down. Sage squeezed my hand, looking down, too.

"We... We'll get to that part later." I said softly. A tear fell off my nose. "About seven and a half months after that, I was supposed to be going to my first meeting on Olympus, to the Summer Solstice meeting, but I went into labor the night before when I was IMing Sage."

"You freaked me out. Aphrodite told me at the meeting that you were fine but couldn't attend, and I still worried night and day about you." Sage told me. "Imagine my surprise when you finally IM me, Aliya comes in carrying two babies, and I hadn't even known she was back."

"You didn't tell him?" Lindsay asked.

"I wanted to do it in person, but that wasn't going to happen, so I tried to find the right moment. I never did, though,and I figured telling him right after my water broke wasn't the enst time, either." I explained. "So when he saw Aliya, I flashed to the farm and then brought him back to Aphrodite's."

"Eleos explained everything to me, about Aliya and the twins. She introduced me to my daughters, Everly and Manon Tucker." Sage said with a hint of a smile on his face. I had to go back to the farm an hour later, but just meeting them was one of the best moments of my life."

"Finally, as for why we're here." I started. "Three months after that, I went to my first meeting. It was just some random meeting, and I sat in the back where I couldn't bring attention to myself.

"At the end of the meeting, when I was about to leave, they showed up. They taunted me, then called Athena over. She had my child. I asked her if she'd really do it, give her own grandchild to someone who would torture them. No one had time to react to that before one of them had taken her and disappeared." I said.

"The two of them still there laughed, and turned to me. Told me it would be wonderful to take my child's life for taking their sister's life. I yelled at them, saying it was their fault Mick was dead, and their stupid life counter was off. They laughed at that." Sage explained. His voice was a little hoarse, holding back tears. "They said it was strange, her giving her life for the girl I now called my wife.

"I told them Mick was selfless and caring, she and Eleos were similar in that way. They told me they were more similar than I thought." Sage said. "They told Eleos to show everyone who she truly was. She told them that this was who she was. The female told her to get rid of the petty enchantment and the facade she used to hide. Told her that while she was at it, she'd looked so much better with gray eyes."

"She waved her hand and wiped my enchantments away like it was nothing." I said. "Barely a moment, and I was back to being Mikayla instead of Eleos. She told Sage that the girl he loved had been standing in front of him the entire time, and that not once had I thought to tell him."

"I was confused, but I understood. She wasn't even allowed to tell anyone who she'd been, so what would have made it okay for her to tell me?" Sage said. "They started threatening her, then, with the locations of all her family. They said she'd come to them tomorrow, at noon, if she wanted none of them harmed. She said if they harmed anyone, she wouldn't show. So the male disappeared and brought back her little sister from camp."

"Bennie had always looked up to me." I said quietly. "I couldn't be the reason she got hurt. They threatened me a little more, then decided I'd been properly convinced, and left.

"As soon as they were gone, Bennie ran over to me and told me I'd broken my own rules. I'd let them see my fear, and I'd let them use it to control me. She told me I could make up for breaking my own rules that I gave her by beating their asses. I told her it wasn't quite that easy." I explained. "After that, Styx showed up. She said Athena had two contradicting vows, one about not killing Eleos, and one about killing her daughter the next time she saw her."

"Your mother vowed to kill you?" Dad asked in outrage.

I nodded softly. "Trying in the first place pushed her over a line that no one, not even a god, can come back from." I said. "Styx said since they both involved me, I should help her choose a punishment. Bennie and I spoke in a language we of the Athena cabin had made up ages ago, that no one, not even mom, was allowed to know. We came to an agreement.

"I told Styx to take away Athena's power. Power put her into this mess in the first place, when she had more power over me after Zeus's decree, and when Zeus gave her power over Sage. So I told Styx to take it away." I said. "Styx told me most would go for revenge, and she liked that I didn't. I told her I wasn't the embodiment of mercy for nothing. So Styx took away Athena's position as an Olympian. The council holds only twelve, now. I believe Hestia's going to be taking over her spot until they find a suitable candidate. She used to have a spot, which she gave up to prevent war, but she's told me she rather likes not worrying about being on the council."

"We went home after that." Sage said. "Talked a little about it, then went to Aphrodite's place to find Aliya. We didn't know what would've happened to her or our other child."

"Aliya had tried to stop them, but had had a panic attack when she saw one of the creatures again, after what they did to her. She had managed to save Everly, though. Aliya had created a mist version of her, and hidden Everly in a closet." I said softly. "We each held for a few moments, but we agreed what was best for her. We sent Aliya away with her, far away, where no one could find either of them.

"After that, we visited Jake and Angie and explained everything. Then Christian and Isaac, then Sage's family, then my cabin at camp." I finished. "And then we came here."

"You can't go." My dad was the first to speak. "You can't let them hurt you."

"I have to, daddy." I whispered. "If I don't, they'll only torture and kill all of you sooner. And I can't live with that. If I go, maybe, just maybe, there's a chance that their reign of chaos over this world can be pushed off a little longer. It's my duty to protect this world, and while my court does what they can, it's not enough, not now. I have to do this."

He stood up and pulled me into his arms. "I don't want to lose my baby girl." He said softly.

"I'm sorry." I said. "I'm sorry."

Lindsay and Erin both got up and hugged me, too. I could see Annika out of the corner of my eye, looking conflicted. The guy beside her was quiet, he had been this whole time, my guess was he didn't know what to make of any of this.

Then there was the sound of a child crying, and Annika lifted a baby out of the crib I'd nearly forgotten was sitting there by the loveseat. She comforted the child, and it calmed down quickly. Then she looked up at me. "Mikayla, these are who I wanted you to meet."

"Call me Mick." I told her. She smiled. "And I'll call you Anni." Her smile widened.

I stepped over to her, and looked at the child she was holding. The child had black hair and green eyes, and I noticed it had Annika's nose.

"This is Oliver." Annika said, gesturing to the guy beside her. "My husband. We got married last year. And this, this is our son. Damien."

"He's adorable." I told her. "You're twenty three, now, right? How old is Damien?"

"I am." Annika confirmed. "And Damien's four months. Do you want to hold your nephew?"

"I would love to." I said with a smile. She carefully handed Damien to me, and I smiled down at him. "Hi, Damien. I'm your Aunty Mikayla. And this your Uncle Sage." I said softly, looking at Sage, who'd come over to stand beside me.

I gave Damien back to Annika, and took my seat at the counter again. "Now, why don't you guys all update me on your lives? I can see that a lot has happened since I was last here."

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**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	16. Chapter 15

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

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We didn't leave my dad's house for three hours. After everyone updated me on what had been going on for them, we all hung out, had fun. Didn't think about impending doom.

But we did have to leave, eventually. Dragging out the visit until the last possible second would only make it hurt more. There were a lot of tears, but still, I pulled away. I had to.

Eight o'clock, I left my family.

* * *

Sage, of course, still didn't want me to go. No one really _wanted _me to go, but I'd gotten most everyone to accept that I _had_ to go. Sage didn't agree.

"I still say you don't go." Sage told me. We were at our house, curled up together in his bed, watching Hephaestus Tv. Some show about demigods renovating monster dens and nests, called Nightmare To Night-Lair.

"It's not up to you, Sage." I said.

"I just don't see why you have to go if they're going to take over the world anyways." Sage said, holding me close.

"I have to go because it will put my loved ones in less danger." I explained softly. "If they don't get me, they go after them. If they get me, they may still go after them. But I have a feeling that catching the prey they've been hunting since the dawn of time will excite them enough that they'll ignore the rest of humanity for another few millennia. Everyone I love will long have been dead and gone by that time."

"And what about the immortal, Mick? You care for some of us." Sage countered.

"It will put off your demise." I told him. "I can't not go, Sage. This is my duty, to protect humanity to the best of my ability. And I'd do it anyways to protect everyone I care about. I would forever feel a coward not worth the life I have if I did not face my destiny."

"I don't want to lose you, Mick. You were my best friend, and you were taken away. I barely got to have you as my wife, and you were taken away. Now I've just barely got both back, and you're being taken away again, for possibly ever." Sage whispered, voice breaking.

"I know." I said softly. "I wish it didn't have to be this way."

"Let me just hold you, for now." Sage said quietly.

"Of course." I responded, curling closer into Sage's arms, while his grip around me tightened.

"I love you." Sage whispered into my hair. "With all of my heart, I love you Eleos Mikayla Tucker. I will never stop loving you."

"And I'll never stop loving you, Sage Tucker." I told him. "No matter whether I am with you, away, or if my bones have already turned to ash and spread amongst the stars. I will never stop loving you."

* * *

Six o'clock.

I woke early and took a shower while Sage cooked us breakfast. This would be the last time I had either.

When I'd gotten out of the shower, Sage brought me to the kitchen, where he'd set out everything he'd made - pancakes, bacon, sausage, toast, chocolate milk, and there was some fresh fruit, too, strawberries and raspberries and black cherries.

Eight o'clock.

It had been a lovely breakfast, and I ate as much as I could stomach. Afterwards, we laid together on the couch, my damp hair soaking through his shirt. Sage held me tight against him, and I think he was crying. No. Those sobs were coming from my own body.

Eleven fifty seven.

I stood up. Sage moved into a sitting position, but didn't stand with me. He could not follow me. I leaned down and kissed him softly. It was a long, sweet, soft kiss, conveying all of the emotions between us, all of the emotions neither of us could voice right now.

"I love you, Sage." I whispered.

"I love you, too, Mikayla." Sage whispered back. He pressed his lips to mine once more before releasing me.

Eleven fifty nine.

I took a step back, gave my husband a sad smile, and flashed away for the last time.

Noon.

* * *

"I almost thought you weren't going to show, Eleos." The female's voice called out as I flashed into the clearing, appearing on the steps of my temple.

"I would not do that." I said, arms crossed.

"Of course you wouldn't." She laughed.

"Seeing as we'll be getting much better acquainted with each other soon, is there something I can call you, other than just referring to you as 'the female' in my head?" I asked sarcastically. Well, they were already going to hurt me, kill me. Might as well go out sassy and snappy.

She only smirked at me. "Over here. Now." She commanded, holding up shining black chains of obsidian.

I did not hesitate, walking right over and allowing her to place the chains on my wrists and ankles. She smirked at me once again.

"You will remain here, at the temple. These chains will alert us to your location, and whether you use your powers or not. The rest of your court has hidden away in the temple, but you will send them out to us. One member of your court, each day at dusk, will meet us out here, or you and your loved ones will suffer the consequences. Each offense will only build a bigger punishment." She told me.

I was uneasy. I'd gotten my family out of danger, for the moment, but my court… There wasn't much I could have done. They would have been after them like hounds anyways, they had been before they'd caught me, they would be after, too.

"Do not disobey. You belong to us now." She told me, and then disappeared.

I turned and went into the temple. The twins greeted me at the door, leading me down the familiar halls I'd roamed in the months after my body's acceptance of Eleos's spirit. They took me straight to the dining hall, where I found my court awaiting my arrival. The looks on everyone's faces ranged from fearful to accepting to determination.

I fell to my knees the moment I reached the hearth in the center. I was weeping, but I made no move to wipe the tears away as they fell down my face. I looked around, at my court, every one of them looking to me for guidance. I did not know what to do. I didn't know how to lead them, and I sure as hell could not pick them off one by one by sending them outside the temple to their deaths.

"I have failed you all." I said finally. "I have taken on her spirit only to let her fall to them. They have won."

"No." Someone slipped through the crowd to the front. Tall, dark skin, short, curly gray hair, gray beard, and grey eyes. Beren, our history keeper. He was a son of Athena, almost as old as the spirit itself, and was one of the first few members of the court. "As long as your spirit remains, so does she, and that means they have not yet won. It is not you who has failed. The court was meant to protect you, so the decree has been since we formed. If anyone has failed, it has been me, the last standing survivor of the court of five."

I took the hand Beren had held out to me, standing. "You have not failed me, Beren, and the five live on through you." I told him. I looked around the rest of my court. "And neither have the rest of you failed me. You all have done exactly as fate would have had you do, and I can ask no more of you. Here is your choice: Remain here with me, bound for certain death at the hands of the very beings we have always fought against. Or retire from this court, return to a normal life, wheresoever you may choose, and have a chance at living out the rest of your natural life."

There was a shocked silence, all of them staring at me. I raised my voice. "I do not fault you if you choose to retire. It will be a mercy, compared to this path. Speak now if you wish to take it." I announced.

And, to my (grim) joy, not a single member out of the hundreds in my court chose to retire. I was not surprised, they were of my court for a reason, and now they would be in this with me until the end.

* * *

It had been a week. Seven days. Seven court members dead.

They'd volunteered, to go out and be the first to face our enemy, a choice I can't imagine how hard it was to make.

As for what the rest of us were doing, it wasn't much. There wasn't much we could do, trapped in the temple with no way to put a stop to what was happening. The only one trying was Beren, going through every book he had in the library on the history of the spirit, reviewing all the stories he had since the start of the court, and any and all information anyone had on our enemy. He didn't seem to be finding anything, but we all let him look. To have something to do was better than nothing.

* * *

"_I must protect-"_

"_No. You must remain alive to pass on your knowledge."_

"_But-"_

"_No buts. This mortal body no longer matters."_

"_We can save-"_

"_No one can save me. If it is to happen, I must save myself."_

* * *

When I woke, it was dawn. I exited the sleeping quarters and crossed the courtyard to go to the kitchens. I gathered together a basket of bread, cheese, and some fruits that had been picked from the gardens, then again crossed the courtyard to go to the library.

"Beren?" I called, stepping inside the grand doors, propped open with stones.

"Livestock ledgers!" Beren called back. I made my way over to where the ledgers that kept the records for the trade of our livestock and their products.

"You really ought to take a rest, Beren."I said softly, looking at the old man. "You look as if you haven't slept in weeks. Were you sleeping before I arrived?"

He didn't answer, and I knew it meant he hadn't been. He kept scouring the pages of the ledger of he was looking through.

"You're going to run yourself ragged, Beren, and that does no good for anyone." I told him. "I want you to rest, for today and tonight, if not longer."

"There is simply too much to be done, my Lady." Beren said, snapping the ledger closed and putting it back on the shelf, pulling the next down.

"Then at least sit and eat with me, won't you?" I suggested. "You need nourishment."

"Don't I always?." Beren asked with a soft smile. He did tend to eat breakfast with me, I'd brought food for him every morning and night, since he wouldn't remember or stop to eat otherwise. "There is a table by the crafts ledgers. We can eat there."

We were just finishing breakfast when Beren slipped something into the basket, hiding it under the cloth lining the basket. I shot him a questioning look, and he slid a note across the table, pressing a finger to his lips, before getting up and wandering back over to the ledgers he'd been looking through before.

_Found this hidden inside an old ledger labelled for pigs. We haven't had pigs since the very beginning, when this place was still being built._

_They seem to have ears everywhere, but not eyes. Go to your study above the belfry. It is your private space, no one will bother you there, nor will they ever enter without your express permission. _

_Burn this note as soon as you can, and do not let anyone see. The less that know of the book, the better, because we are doomed if they find it._

I dropped the note in one of the two fires on the steps outside the library, and made my way to the belfry like I had all the time in the world. None of my court would betray me, but I didn't want to take any chances of them somehow overhearing.

My study wasn't so much a study as a mostly bare room above the large, golden bell in the bell tower. There was a small ladder hidden behind a false brick wall in one corner. I slid the false wall back into place and climbed up the dark shaft, closing the trapdoor behind me when I reached the top.

The floor of the study was wooden, and the walls were the same brick as the tower, with large windows starting slightly above the height of my waist. The vaulted ceiling was high, reaching up to the pointed cone of the tower's tip.

The only furnishings up here were a small rug in one corner, and a pile of pillows and blankets atop said rug.

I went over and settled down on the small rug, back against the pillows, and pulled the book out of the basket.

I nearly dropped in is surprise when I opened to the first page.

It was the diary of the original Eleos, the one born with the very spirit I now carried within my body.

* * *

**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	17. Chapter 18

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

* * *

**Previously on **_**More Than A Mortal:**_

With everything in place and all preparations we could have possibly made done, I went up to my study above the belfry. I settled down on my blankets and pillows, crossing my legs. Looking out the nearest of the large open windows, I saw that the sun was beginning to set.

I let out the largest surge of my power that I could.

* * *

The chains shattered with how much power I sent into them, and the entire belfry lit up like a lantern for a few moments.

When the light faded, one of Them was standing in front of me.

"Avalon." I greeted.

He scowled at me. "What-" He cut himself of abruptly as a war cry rose up from the members of my court as they rushed out of the temple and towards the two of them still down in the clearing. Avalon stalked to the window, gripping the sill so hard his knuckles turned white. There was a visceral roar from below, and his face turned murderous as he rounded on me.

"Why can't I leave?" He demanded.

"A simple enchantment, placing more wards upon my study. Just as the others cannot get into the temple, you cannot leave this room. Beren had a vial of your blood laying around, so it was simple, really, to pour my power into the wards as I caught your attention." I explained calmly.

"You will die." Avalon snarled. "You have killed my sister and brother and now your people intend to kill my only remaining sister."

"It wasn't me that killed your sister, nor was it me that killed your brother, if you'll remember." I told him. "And killing me will only allow you to complete the cycle, won't it?"

That confused him. "What cycle?"

"The one where you killed Eleos and her child. You've already taken my child, I know she is dead, and you plan to kill me, now." I said. "It is a cycle, you do what you can to destroy what we protect."

"Eleos had no child." He said, expression guarded.

"She did not tell you because you betrayed her." I informed him. I picked up the diary from where I'd left it up in the study, and tossed it to him. "Last entry."

He flipped through the pages, glancing cautiously up at me every few seconds, to make sure I didn't do anything. Then he found the entry, and his eyes widened as he read the writing.

"She was with child…" He murmured., looking down at the diary. Then he looked up at me. "You think you know everything about us, what we were. You don't."

I didn't say anything. Let him talk, it meant he wasn't going to kill me yet. "I loved her. I truly loved her." His voice was raw with emotion. "I was always the runt of us siblings. Nadia, she was always the Alpha. So when she sent me to act and get close to Eleos, I thought it was a wonderful chance to prove myself.

"But then it was more than an act. I wanted her to see me as good, I wanted her to think the world of me. I told Nadia and Iolande and Teren that it was just part of the act, to get her to trust me. But it was real. Being with her, it made me more human. Made me less of what I was. They didn't see it because they'd always seen me as less than them, as the runt of the litter." Avalon spoke. "I fell in love with Eleos. I did everything I could to put off helping my siblings, but Nadia grew suspicious.

"I had to give them something. So I gave them our location and told them to go for the mortal. It would hurt more if she lost her court first, I told them. I just wanted to figure out how to save her. It hurt me more than anything when I watched my siblings kill Cattalina and cause Dreyden's death, when they kidnapped Alazae. They told me everything they did to her, you know, and they made sure I knew the exact moment she had died, cursing my name." He continued. "It all went downhill when I went for Beren. I put it off for as long as possible, but Nadia urged me to move more quickly.

"The old man is smart. He figured it out just before I tried to put the dagger through his heart. He called out to Eleos, and she came running into the tent. She saw me, with the dagger, and she knew, immediately. Her eyes filled with disgust, hate. And hurt. I was the person she trusted more than anyone else alive or dead, and I had been betraying her since the very beginning." Avalon took a deep breath, sitting down and leaning against the wall under the window he'd been looking out earlier, eyes cast upwards. "Nadia was near, and Iolande and Teren, so I couldn't even tell her once more that I loved her.

"Instead, I told her of how I hated her. She did not realize it, but I was not talking of my feelings toward her. I didn't wish to see her dead, the one I wanted to see dead was Nadia. She has controlled my entire life, and when I finally found something I loved, a new family, she forced me to destroy them." Avalon said. "Beren is smart, I'm sure he realized who the words were meant for, though I know he, too, was shaken from my betrayal.

"Nadia was very angry, later, that I had let them get away. I played up the runt excuse, saying that Eleos was stronger than me and her power had overwhelmed me. I could have caught them if I'd wanted to." Avalon said. "But I didn't want to. Nadia put us all on the hunt for them, and we hunted Eleos and her growing court for a long time.

"When we finally found the temple, only I was able to enter. None of us knew why, but Nadia told me if I didn't kill Eleos and that damn old man, she would kill me herself, slowly and painfully. Nadia does not play around with threats, and I had no choice. I had to kill her." Avalon said. He shifted his gaze to me. "She did not kill me for Eleos surviving, because she had seen her body when I brought it out and begrudgingly accepted I had done what I could. None of us expected Eleos was still there."

"You still don't know how she did it, do you?" I asked.

"Not a single soul truly knows how she separated her spirit from her body as she died. No one but her knew, and she is gone, now. You let her pass." Avalon told me. "Before you came along, she would still talk to me. I could not see her, nor could anyone, but I could hear her. My siblings thought my time pretending to be good had driven me crazy, they thought I was speaking to myself. They could not hear her, perhaps the only thing they could not hear, for she hid herself from them."

"What did she talk to you about?" I asked.

"Anything. She watched me for a time, she said, after I killed her." Avalon answered. "She told me she forgave me, which meant more to me than anything ever could. What she could not forgive, though, was my continued pursuit against her and her court. I could not get out of my sister's clutches, I explained, but she said there was one way. I was too much a coward to approach death, even though she told me we could be together again, for eternity. So I have remained here on earth, following my sister's orders. I am not proud of my choices."

"She has passed on into the afterlife of the immortals." I told him. "You would have had to wait for her before, but she is already there, now. You _could_ be together again. She is the spirit of forgiveness, so I know she will be happy to see you."

Avalon was about to say something, but then he shut his mouth and stood quickly. "Nadia approaches, the wards have weakened greatly. I am sorry for all we have done to you and those you love, but I know no other way. There is nothing I can do." He said, shaking his head.

At that moment, Nadia herself appeared in the center of the room. She looked between Avalon and I, a murderous look on her face. Then she rounded on her brother. "Avalon, why is the girl not dead yet?" She asked coldly.

Avalon was staring at me. I stared back. "It is not the only way. You did know another way, for quite a long time." I told him.

Nadia glared at me before looking back at her brother. "What lies is she filling your head with, brother?" She demanded.

I could tell Avalon was warring with himself on the inside. He wanted to do what was right, be released from his sister's control and make his love proud, but he'd been under Nadia's control for so long that he didn't know how to break it.

Slowly, Avalon turned to face his sister. "Did you know," he asked quietly, "how I was able to get into the temple when you three could not?"

"Of course not!" Nadia exclaimed, a bit too quickly. Avalon stared at her, unmoving. Her tone changed to angry. "I knew that wench was with child, I'd smelled her monthly cycles before and it wasn't there when it should have been. You'd betrayed us, Avalon, and when you were able to get in, it only confirmed my suspicions. She would have to set the wards against us, but not you, or she would not be able to get in. I decided it was fitting punishment that you be the one to end her. A final betrayal, for all you have done in your worthless life is betray."

"No, Nadia. All I have done in my life is follow your orders, even when it killed me to do so." Avalon said emotionlessly.

Before I knew it, Avalon had shifted into their monstrous wolf form, and he'd launched himself at Nadia. She was surprised by the attack, and went down under his weight before shifting herself and throwing him off. She was much bigger than him, he _had _said he was the runt of the litter, and I knew from the start that he was fighting a losing fight.

While they were preoccupied with trying to kill each other in the middle of the large room, Beren made his way into the study. He edged along the wall, quietly and carefully, so as not to attract the attention of either of them. When he made it to me, he knelt down beside me to whisper. "We must get you out of here. The bunker will be safe."

"No." I whispered back, watching the fight. Avalon was holding his own, but he was tiring.

"I must protect-"

"You must remain alive to pass on your knowledge."

"But-"

"No buts. This mortal body no longer matters."

"We can save-"

"No one can save me. If it is to happen, I must save myself."

"We must protect humanity, for what are we without it, as humans?" Beren desperately tried once more.

"And we will protect it. But for that to happen, you will need to pass on your knowledge to the new Eleos, teach her and guide her as you once did me. You know the knock. Get as many as you can down there and have them lock the doors behind you. Nadia will not be able to get in, the wards there are too strong for her to be able to break for another hundred millenia, especially as the only force working against them." I told him. "Go, Beren."

He reluctantly stood, edging his way along the wall, back to the trapdoor. When he was gone, I turned my attention back to Avalon and Nadia.

Just in time to see Nadia toss Avalon's limp body to the floor. As she shifted back into a human form, his body flickered back weakly.

Avalon out of the way, Nadia turned to me, wiping her brother's blood from her mouth. "You _really _shouldn't have turned my brother against me." She told me, annoyed.

"And you _really _shouldn't have done everything you have." I said, finally standing up. "You think, without your siblings, you have nothing to lose? Bitch, you've taken everything from me, my family, my friends, my entire life. I can never return to them. You know, I understand some of how Avalon felt. You kept him from returning to the people he loved, too."

"Do not presume to speak of my brother." Nadia growled. "He was straying from our way, so he had to learn a lesson."

"How about you don't threaten me?" i countered. "We both know you're going to kill me anyways."

She took a step forward, but then stumbled back as my body filled with a bright, burning light. Even with her eyes shielded, the light still paralyzed her as I made my way towards her. She looked afraid, for a moment, as I came nearer, but it passed when I stepped past her toward Avalon's body.

I knelt down beside him and placed my hand against his forehead. "You've done pretty well. Go, be with her and enjoy your eternity." I whispered, the light travelling from me to him. I stood and took a step back, as his body dissolved in the light, disappearing.

"What did you do?" Nadia demanded, looking at the spot where her brother had been, no longer paralyzed by the light. She looked up at me, expression even more angry than murderous.

"I sent him to the afterlife he deserved, the one where he can finally be happy." I told her. "I took him away from whatever hellish afterlife you will go to, whatever afterlife Iolande and Teren now reside in."

"You. Bitch." She spat, stalking forwards. I took a step back, and another and another, until I hit the wall below one of the windows. She stopped in front of me, grabbing my throat. I made no move to stop her, though she did nothing but hold me there for the moment.

"I will crush the air from your lungs and throw your body down to my army to tear you apart." She said viciously. "You will be destroyed in front of your court."

"Might be a little hard." I told her seriously. "None of them are down there." I didn't need to turn around and look to know they were no longer fighting, that Beren had gotten everyone he could out. Nadia and her siblings had always had ears everywhere, one of their hellish powers, but she hadn't been paying attention.

The sound of all fighting had stopped long ago, while she fought her brother.

"What!" Nadia screeched, looking past me at the clearing below. The only thing down there now would be the fallen and her army.

"No matter." Nadia said, grip tightening around my throat. "I will still kill you, and throw them your body. It will be a treat for my army."

My airways were cutting off now, but I gave her a soft smile as she glared. A whisper of a breeze passed my ear, and with it, a whisper of a voice. "Eleos and I send our thanks." Nadia heard it and her grip tightened even more.

Then, just before I could pass out, she threw me from the tower. As my body hit the ground and the first of her demonic creatures tore into my skin, my soul and Eleos's remaining bit of spirit split from my body, and from each other.

My last thought was that I was glad the court was safe, _and if only I could have seen Sage one last time-_

* * *

**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	18. Chapter 19

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

* * *

**Previously on **_**More Than A Mortal:**_

My last thought was that I was glad the court was safe, _and if only I could have seen Sage one last time-_

* * *

When my soul and Eleos's spirit split, as they were no longer bound to my body and had not been one and the same originally, Eleos's spirit went off to the bunker, to be with her court for the time being.

It wasn't Eleos's soul, per se, as she had faded away into her afterlife, and was now happy there with Avalon. It was the part of her that was the goddess of pity, mercy, clemency, compassion, humanity. It was sort of like she'd shifted the role of goddess onto me, and gone on for her afterlife. Now I was shifting the role onto someone else, though I did not accompany the spirit like she had, but that was because, as the original, the spirit of the domain had been bound to her soul. It was not bound to me.

My soul, much like Eleos's had, went on to the afterlife. Her afterlife was different, as she was born a goddess and had faded into their great unknown. My soul, on the other hand, went to the Underworld, because I had been born a demigod, half mortal.

The beaches of the River Styx were particularly busy this night. There were many souls wandering about, waiting their turn to get on Charon's ferry and cross Styx's river.

I was about to step up onto the wooden boat when the sound of crying caught my attention. I turned around and followed the sound to find a crying six year old. She had on a tutu, the color I couldn't tell because we were all kinda ghostly looking, and she had a stuffed bear tucked under her arm.

"Is everything alright?" I asked her, sitting down next to her by the water.

She pointed across the river at another soul, watching us carefully, as though I might hurt her when I was dead, too. "I can't get to daddy."

"Her father had a drachma, but the child didn't. He was on the ferry before he realized she couldn't come with him. He's been waiting for her since." Charon called over to me.

"You couldn't just let her cross? She's a child!" I exclaimed.

Charon shook his head sadly. "I cannot change the rules that apply to all non-mortals. The gods allow me to bend them, sometimes, but not every time."

I turned back to the little girl and pressed my drachma into her small hands. "You can have mine, okay?" I told her.

"But how do you get there?" She asked.

"My brother isn't here, but I know he carries a few extra drachmae, just in case." I told her. "I'll just wait for him." I didn't tell her my brother was a long way away from dying, and that it would be a long time before I could cross, if Erin did indeed have an extra when he did arrive.

"Thank you!" The girl said, hugging me, before running over to catch the ferry just before it could pull away from the dock.

I watched as Charon rowed the souls of the dead across, and as the little girl jumped off the ferry at the other side and ran to her father. He picked her up and spun her, both of them laughing. Before they continued on into wherever they would end up, the fields of Asphodel or Elysium, likely Elysium if they were demigods as Charon had said, the father lifted a hand in salute to me. I saluted him back, and he smiled as he took his daughter's hand and they moved on.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to help someone, even in death." A voice said. I looked to the side to find Styx seated beside me.

"She was just a little girl. And it's not any of their faults that they can't pay." I said.

"I know, Mikayla." Styx said. "I know."

She pressed something into my hand. It was a drachma. "Styx, I can't take this. So many other people down here still need to cross." I said.

"Take it and cross." Styx said. "And I've got plenty more to give out. When it gets crowded, I give them to everyone who needs them. They get to cross my river, Charon gets off work early, and everyone is happy."

"Thank you, Styx." I said. "I mean it."

"Now, you've got a trial to get to. You're not one for just taking the easy way through and going to the fields of Asphodel, are you?" Styx asked.

"I would like to go to Elysium." I murmured. "Siblings that have passed, friends, family… I should like to see them again."

"And I've no doubt you will." Styx told me. "You've done many a great thing in your lifetime. Now, get going now and you'll catch the next crossing."

There was, of course, a line for the trials. The people who would be sent to the fields of punishment didn't have the choice of taking the easy way through and going to the fields of punishment, so they had to go through the trials, too. They were kept in a different area to wait, but the judges would see one of their cases, a case from our area, a case from theirs, and so on and so forth.

While I waited, I played with Cerberus. He was guarding the gates, making sure no one alive got past, and none of the souls tried to make a run for it, but nothing much was happening at the moment. The beaches might have been busy, but it was slower over here. And he liked his belly rubs and ear scratches.

When it was my turn, a ghost exited the trial room and announced "Mikayla Tucker." to us waiting for our names to be called.

Cerberus whined when I moved away, but I scratched his ear one last time and whispered "I'll see if I can come back and visit again, okay? I promise."

Then I followed the ghost into the trial room.

It was a large room, with a table seating the three judges at one end. There were two doors behind them, one in each corner, that would lead to either the fields of punishment or towards Elysium and the fields of punishment.

What surprised me the most, though, were the three judges.

Hades, in the center, not much of a surprise, he did run the underworld and participate in the trials at times, instead of whichever ghosts he had hired.

Styx, on the right. I suppose it made sense, she did live here in the Underworld, and there wasn't much else for her to do except punish oathbreakers, so judging was a perfect job with her.

"Hello, again, dear." Styx greeted. I didn't look at her, though, my eyes were glued to the third judge, who was similarly staring back at me.

Because the third judge was Sage.

Neither of us said anything. I don't think either of us even knew what to say. I couldn't imagine how he felt, though, because now he knew for sure that I was dead and there was no chance of me coming back.

"Alright, we'd better begin." Hades eventually said awkwardly. I tore my gaze away from Sage to look at Hades. Maybe I could talk to my husband for a few moments after the trial.

The trial flew by quickly. After all of my work as Athena's assistant, and then as Eleos, my chances of getting into Elysium were perfect. They quickly ruled that I go there.

The moment the trial was over, Sage stood. "I'm done for the day." He told Hades.

"Go. Show her to her new home. She can go next to your cousin." Hades said, waving a hand through the air.

Sage came over to where I was standing, stopping in front of me. We stared at each other for a few moments, before I threw myself into his arms. I think he was crying. I knew I was.

"God, I missed you, Sage." I whispered, holding him tight.

"I was so afraid of what they would do to you." Sage said. "Mikayla, what did they do to you?"

"Let's not talk about that right now." I said. "It wasn't even that bad, I swear, she didn't hurt me that much. And she didn't win, either, the spirit is free, she cannot catch her, and she is even injured. It will be a long time before she can try anything again, and the court is protected. They will find a new Eleos."

"C'mon." Sage said. "You get to meet my cousin, Lyric. She and her partner, Kiernan, they're Whit's parents. You remember Whitney?"

"I thought Whit was your cousin?" I asked, pulling out of the hug so I could look at his face.

"They're not technically my cousins, but all my cousins' children." Sage said with a shrug. "Dakota's down there, too, he's eight. He was Lydia's son. I think he'll like you."

"I can't wait to meet even more of your family." I told Sage.

"Your family, too." Sage told me. "You are still my wife."

"I'm dead, Sage." I said softly.

"And I'm the god of the pit, but I've been spending my time here or on Olympus or in the mortal world or wherever I felt like staying, instead of down there because it's hellish down there. The monsters like it, though, and as long as they're happy down there, it keeps them from trying to get up to the mortal world." Sage told me. "I haven't completely lost you."

With that, he took my hand and we walked towards the door that led to Elysium and the fields of Asphodel.

"Oh and Mikayla?" Styx called, just as we were about to step through. I looked over to her. "You've held up your oaths quite well."

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**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


	19. Epilogue

_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)_

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Far away, in the rolling green land of a country largely unknown and left alone by the godly world, a woman carrying a baby begged shelter at the door of a sprawling mansion.

The couple that lived there allowed her in, and she and the child became the family they'd never had.

And, a great deal of time later, when another woman happened to come to the door, begging shelter, she and the first woman became good friends.

When the couple who'd owned the mansion died, they left it to the two women and the child, having no heirs of their own. When the second woman eventually started her own family and moved away, the two women kept in close contact.

Some time later, a monster stumbled upon the mansion, not hindered at all by the wards set up against demonic origin, for it was of the godly world, entirely different than the world of those who lived in that far off country. It was attracted by the growing child, her scent strong enough to attract it all the way across the country.

It was at that point that the first woman decided something needed to be done to protect the child. She called up her friend, and they agreed on a course of action. The current fate of the child they both cared for, after having known and raised her as long as they did, had been decided.

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**Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but it would be much appreciated! I send my love to all of you!**


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